Europe in flames: Firefighters exhausted, thousands evacuated — "We are looking into hell"
Massive wildfires are raging across Spain, the UK, Corsica, and Greece, where three firefighters have died and thousands of tourists have been evacuated from resorts.
At noon, the first respite of the day arrives. The temperature hovers around 35 degrees, and a sharp smell of ash, embers, and burnt wood hangs in the air, refusing to dissipate. On tables placed in the shrinking patch of shade near the sports center in the village of La Forge, west of Bordeaux, about two hundred people are crowded: firefighters, soldiers, police officers, gendarmes, local officials, and first aid teams.
The village was evacuated about 14 hours after a fire broke out six kilometers away last week. France has dubbed it a "mega-fire." By the time it was contained, it had consumed about 420 square kilometers of mostly forest and forced about 200,000 people from their homes. New outbreaks occur daily, and rescue forces, along with hundreds of volunteers, are stretched beyond their limits.
"We have passed a turning point, but we are very tired," says a senior fire officer in La Forge. "We are looking into hell."
Rémy Boussion, 46, knows what awaits him and his neighbors. His house was damaged in the fire, and he spends his days cutting 200-meter-wide firebreaks in the remaining forest, a barrier intended to slow the next outbreak. "Right now, we are all running on adrenaline," he says. "But the crisis will pass, and then it will be really hard. Then we will cry."
La Forge is not alone. This past weekend, fires burned all over France. In the Var region, actor George Clooney and his wife were forced to evacuate their home as the fire approached. In the famous Fontainebleau forests near Paris, in Corsica, and in the Dijon area, the flames still pose a threat. In the UK, 120 firefighters struggled for three days with a fire in Suffolk. In Spain, a record number of fires was recorded for this time of year. In Greece, three firefighters were killed in Crete, and thousands of tourists were evacuated from resorts.
Greek authorities mobilized nearly 500 firefighters, including teams from France and Romania stationed in the country in advance, alongside 19 firefighting planes and 11 helicopters. On Saturday, new outbreaks occurred, and a fire east of Nafpaktos led to evacuation warnings in at least four villages.
"The winds are very strong and continue to create particularly difficult conditions," said the Greek Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Evangelos Tournass. According to him, extreme turbulence prevented certain planes from scooping water or getting close enough to the hotspots to empty their tanks.
New data published by the European Union paints a worrying picture: the weather this year has broken records for this period. Scientists remind us that climate change models have predicted such extreme weather for many years, but some disasters are arriving earlier than expected and with greater intensity.
