Heavy fires were still raging on Monday, especially on the southwestern coast of France. According to local authorities, another 5,000 people had to be evacuated there on Monday. Two severe fires in Gironde and Landes, southwest of Bordeaux, were still out of control on Monday.
The fire, driven by the wind, moved south from La Teste-de-Buch along the beach to the popular beaches of La Lagune, near the famous Dune de Pilat – the largest dune in Europe. The strong winds put the southern district of Les Miquelots of La Teste-de-Buch in the danger zone, forcing five thousand residents to leave. Three thousand people also had to flee Pyla-sur-Mer, not only because of the flames, but also because of the toxic smoke. The wind made it difficult to predict which direction the fire would go.
As of Monday, 16,000 people – mostly campers – had been evacuated in this area and placed in shelters. The French government sent 200 additional firefighters to the area, where 1,500 men had been fighting the fire for almost a week.
Spain
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited some of the affected areas in his country on Monday. So far, 70 thousand hectares have burned down in Spain, including in Castilia y Léon, Galicia and Extremadura. On Monday, thirty fires were still raging, but they were slowly decreasing in strength. The fires in Mijas in the province of Malaga were largely brought under control so that 2,000 of the more than 3,000 evacuees in that area were able to return home on Monday.
An overwhelming majority of scientists see the increase in the number and severity of heat waves – and additional fires – as a result of global warming. Comparisons are made with 2003, when the heat in Europe cost the lives of 70 thousand people, the worst heat wave in 70 years at the time.
A recent study in the scientific journal Nature shows that “sustained periods of severe heat have increased in both frequency and intensity over the past forty years” and will continue to do so. The BBC spoke with Enrique Sánchez, the dean of the faculty of environmental studies at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, who predicted that heat waves will be normal in the future and that people will have to learn to live with them. “It is impossible that temperatures will not rise, so heat waves will become more and more common in Europe.”
apocalypse
French media quoted meteorologist François Gourand of Météo France as predicting a “heat apocalypse.” In addition to the heat and fires, especially in the big cities, air quality is also starting to become a problem. In Spain it had been warmer than 40 degrees for ten days, while it hardly cooled down in the evening and night.
New record temperatures of more than 40 degrees were predicted for France and also the United Kingdom for Monday. The highest temperatures were measured in Spain and Portugal in recent days, where it became 47 degrees in the town of Pinhão, for example.
Fighting the fires claimed the lives of at least four people: in Portugal a pilot was killed when his fire-fighting plane crashed, in Greece two crew members died when their helicopter plunged into the water, and in the Spanish region of Zamora a 62-year-old was killed. firefighter found dead.
The heat itself also made victims, especially among people who went into full sunlight despite warnings. In Torrejón de Arduz, Spain, a 50-year-old hiker died of sunstroke, in Madrid a 60-year-old street sweeper died while working, and in Zamora a 69-year-old shepherd was found dead.
More than 510 people died in Spain as a result of the extreme temperatures, according to an estimate by Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute. In Portugal, the ‘excess mortality’ in recent days was 659, according to the authorities, probably all heat victims.