Giant Fires in Spain and France: 200,000 People Evacuated
Deadly heat in Europe has triggered massive forest fires. Over 200,000 people have been evacuated from the suburbs of Bordeaux in France and the area surrounding Madrid in Spain.
The deadly heat in Europe continues, bringing with it a wave of fires: more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from the suburbs of Bordeaux in southwestern France, as well as from towns in the area of Madrid, the capital of Spain, following forest fires that continue to spread, fueled by the wind, as reported by the authorities in these countries.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that so far more than 141,000 people have been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions near Bordeaux, the main center of the fire. Drivers were asked to avoid the area unless necessary.
"The fires that are plaguing our country have reached a level never seen before," Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday.
French military forces have also been mobilized to assist in fighting the fire. More than 14,000 dunams of forest have been completely burned, and heavy damage has been caused to about 100 homes.
In Spain, two large forest fires that broke out a few days ago merged into a deadly fire, leading the authorities to declare an immediate state of emergency. According to the country's Ministry of Transport, the fires forced more than 30,000 people to flee their homes in the Madrid area and more than 20,000 to remain trapped, as it is impossible to reach them for rescue.
In Spain, too, officials have already defined the fires as the most severe ever recorded in the region. It was also reported that so far more than 9,000 dunams have been completely burned. Spanish police stated that they have arrested one person and are investigating another suspect for arson.
This is the second consecutive year that Spain is dealing with an especially destructive fire season. More than 29 large fires have broken out in Spain so far this year, affecting an area five times larger than the fires of last year, which was also a year of negative records, said Minister of Environment Sara Aagesen in posts she published on social media.
The abnormal heat wave in Europe began last month, when the focus managed to move from the west to the east of the continent, with 1,000 excess deaths recorded in France within days.
Authorities estimated that about 190 million Europeans suffered from the heat wave across the continent. In Berlin, temperatures of 41 degrees were measured. In Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, temperatures hovered around 40 degrees, a figure not seen for decades.
