Thousands evacuated in Spain amid deadly wildfires and new heatwave | Wildfires

The deadly heat wave that has made forest fires in the Mediterranean region has made at least three lives and forced thousands of people at home.

The firefighters continued to fight the flames on Tuesday and the authorities have prepared for new damage, because temperatures in some regions jumped well beyond 40 ° C. In Spain, a Romanian in the fifties died after having suffered 98% burns when he tried to save the horses from a stable on fire near Madrid on Monday evening.

A four -year -old boy who was found unconscious in his family’s car in Sardinia died on Monday in Rome after undergoing irreversible brain damage caused by a heat stroke. And in Montenegro, a soldier died and another was seriously injured when their oil tanker overturned during the fight against forest fires in the hills north of the capital, Podgorica on Tuesday.

The scientist warned that the heat currently affecting large parts of Europe creates perfect conditions for forest fires and serves as another reminder of the climate emergency.

“Thanks to climate change, we are now living in a much hotter world,” said Akshay Deoras, a researcher in the Meteorology Department of Reading University, at Agency France-Press, adding that “many underestimate the danger”.

The fire of Tres Cantos, near Madrid – which had been powered by winds of 70 km / h (45 MPH) and which devoured 1,000 hectares of land – was still not under control Tuesday evening, when other strong gusts were expected. The regional government said that it had recovered 150 dead sheep and 18 dead horses from the region.

More than 3,700 people were evacuated from 16 municipalities in the middle of dozens of flames reported in the northwest region of Castilla y León, one of which has damaged the mining site of the Roman era of UNESCO in Les Médulas.

The neighboring Galicia authorities said that the largest forest fire of the year had burned 3,000 hectares of land in the province of Orosense. In the southern city of Tarifa, firefighters on the ground and in planes fought against a fire that broke out on Monday, 2,000 people evacuated.

The Blazes have led the Ministry of the Interior to declare a “pre-urgency phase” to help coordinate emergency resources.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez offered condolences to the family of the deceased man after the fire of Tres Cantos, and thanked the emergency services for their “tireless efforts”.

He urged people to recognize the severity of the situation. “We are at extremely at risk of forest fires,” he said in a message on X on Tuesday. “Let’s be very careful.”

In neighboring Portugal, firefighters were fighting against three large forest fires in the center and north of the country.

The authorities of Greece have requested assistance from the EU as fires, fed by gale force winds, torn on large expanses of the Western Peloponnese and the emergency services ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents.

The firefighters also tried to contain flames on the popular Ionian tourist islands of Zakynthos and Kefalony. Gusts leading to fire fighting efforts, emergency services ordered all hotels in the Agala and Keri region on Zakynthos to close temporarily, forcing manual suitcases to flee and move to other areas.

Until the end of Tuesday, dozens of firefighters, supported by 15 fire trucks and eight planes and helicopters with water bombing, still tried to turn off the fast flames.

“All that civil protection can offer is here, but there are very strong winds and fires are out of control,” said the island’s mayor, Giorgos Stasinopoulos. “We need much more air support, it’s vital.”

The fire services said that he was also facing flames further north in Epius, around Preveza and in the central region of Aetolia-Acarnania.

Despite the temperatures that pushed 43C into certain parts of the Peloponnaise region of southern Greece on Tuesday – and prolonged drought, which produced very flammable conditions on Tinder soil – those responsible have described the trigger of so many lights as “suspects”.

Faced with around 63 eruption flames and firefighters faced with 106 front flames, firefighters sent specialized teams to several of the regions struck to investigate a possible criminal fire.

In Albania, hundreds of firefighters and troops had controlled most of the nearly 40 fires that broke out in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Defense said, but more than a dozen were still active.

Since the beginning of July, nearly 34,000 hectares have been burned nationally, according to the information system on fires in the European forest. Police have said that many flames have been deliberately, with more than 20 arrested.

In Croatia, around 150 firefighters spent on Monday evening defending the houses near the port city of Split.

In the Turkish province of northwest of çanakkale, more than 2,000 people were evacuated and 77 people treated in the hospital for inhalation of smoke after fires broke out near the tourist village of Güzlyalı, the authorities announced.

Images on the Turkish media have shown fire houses and cars, while more than 760 firefighters, 10 planes, nine helicopters and more than 200 vehicles were deployed to fight the flames. This year, Turkey has known its hottest July since records started 55 years ago.

In the south of France, where temperature recordings were beaten in at least four weather stations, the government called for vigilance.

The city in the southwest of Bordeaux reached a record of 41.6c on Monday while records of all time were broken in the weather stations of Bergerac, Cognac and Saint Girons, according to the National Weather Service, Mtétéo France.

Agency France-Press contributed to this report