Two people have died in wildfires in Spain that its prime minister has linked to global warming, saying: “Climate change is killing”. The toll is on top of hundreds of heat-related deaths reported in the Iberian Peninsula, as high temperatures have gripped the continent in recent days and sparked fires from Portugal to the Balkans. Some regions, including northern Italy, are also experiencing widespread droughts. Climate change is making such life-threatening extremes less rare – and heat waves have even come to places like Britain, which issued its first ‘red’ alert for extreme heat. Hot, dry weather in the UK has crippled rail services and forced two airports to close their runways on Monday. In France, heat records were broken and hot winds complicated firefighting in the southwest of the country. “The fire is literally exploding,” said Marc Vermeulen, the chief of the regional fire service who described tree trunks shattering as the flames consumed them, sending burning embers into the air and further spreading the flames. “We are dealing with extreme and extraordinary circumstances,” he said.
Planes are racing to put out the flames
Authorities evacuated more cities, moving another 14,900 people from areas that could be in the path of the fires and choking smoke. In total, more than 31,000 people have been forced to leave their homes and summer vacation spots in the Gironde region since the forest fires began on July 12. Three additional planes were sent to join six others battling the fires, collecting seawater and making repeat runs through thick clouds of smoke, the Interior Ministry said Sunday night. A firefighter reacts as a fire burns near Tabara, Zamora province, Spain, Monday. (Isabel Infantes/Reuters) A firefighter stands on top of a truck at a forest fire near Louchats as fires continue to spread in the Gironde region of southwestern France on Monday. (Philippe Lopez/The Associated Press) More than 200 reinforcements were dispatched to join 1,500 firefighters trying to contain the blaze in the Gironde, where the blazes neared prized vineyards and belched smoke in the Arcachon sea basin famous for its oysters and beaches. Spain, meanwhile, reported a second death in two days in its own blazes. The body of a 69-year-old rancher was found Monday in the same hilly area where a 62-year-old firefighter died a day earlier when he was trapped by flames in the northwestern province of Zamora. More than 30 forest fires around Spain have forced the evacuation of thousands of people and blackened 220 square kilometers of forest and scrub. Passengers on a train crossing Zamora got a terrifying, close-up look at a fire when their train stopped in the countryside. Video of the unplanned – and alarming – stop showed about a dozen passengers on a locomotive looking worried as they looked out the windows at flames engulfing both sides of the track. Smoke rises from the forest fire in La Teste-de-Buch, as seen from the five-star La Corniche hotel, in front of the Pilat dune, in Pyla sur Mer, France, on Monday. (Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images)
“Climate change is killing”
Climate scientists say heat waves are more intense, more frequent and longer because of climate change – and combined with drought have made it harder to fight fires. They say climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. “Climate change is killing,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday during a visit to the Extremadura region, which has seen three major fires. “It’s killing people, it’s killing our ecosystems and our biodiversity.” Teresa Ribera, Spain’s ecological transition minister, described her country as “literally under fire” as she attended climate change talks in Berlin. He warned of “frightening prospects for the next few days” — after more than 10 days of temperatures above 40C, with only moderate cooling at night. At least 748 heat-related deaths have been reported in the heat wave in Spain and neighboring Portugal, where temperatures reached 47C earlier this month. Passengers take pictures in a fire while traveling by train in Zamora, Spain on Monday. (Francisco Seoane Perez/The Associated Press)
Temperature records were broken in France
Spain’s heat wave was forecast to ease on Tuesday, but the respite will be short-lived as temperatures rise again on Wednesday, especially in the dry western region of Extremadura. France’s often temperate Brittany region was sweltered with a record 39.3C in the port of Brest, surpassing the high of 35.1C set since September 2003, French weather service Meteo-France said. Regional records in France were broken in more than a dozen cities as the weather service said Monday was “the hottest day of this heatwave”. WATCHES | Heat wave in France empties streets, shops:
Businesses and workers in France are suffering from the heat
High temperatures in France have emptied streets and shops, but business owners still feel compelled to stay open. The Balkan region expected the worst of the heat later this week, but has already seen sporadic fires. Early Monday, authorities in Slovenia said firefighters had brought a blaze under control. Croatia sent a water-dropping plane there to help after struggling last week with its own fires along the Adriatic Sea. A fire in Šibenik forced some people to evacuate their homes, but was later extinguished. In Portugal, very cold weather on Monday helped fire crews make progress. More than 600 firefighters attended four major fires in northern Portugal.
