By Janis Laizans and Guillermo Martinez
LANTON, France/EL TIEMBLO, Spain, July 29 (Reuters) – Temperatures were soaring again in France and Spain on Wednesday in a fourth heatwave of the summer, increasing the threat from wildfires that have forced large-scale evacuations of people, scorched through forests and killed wildlife.
In Spain, weather agency AEMET said temperatures were expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday in at least six regions, which have been placed on orange alert, the second-highest level.
In France, temperatures in the southwest, hit by devastating fires, were expected to rise from around 33 C on Tuesday to peak at 42 C, according to Meteo France, while dry winds from the southwest in the morning and from the west in the afternoon could stoke flames.
FIREFIGHTERS WARY OF NEW TEMPERATURE RISE
French firefighters kept a major blaze west of Bordeaux stable overnight. And near Bordeaux’s airport, which has remained open, tramway services resumed and hotels reopened. But officials warned the wildfires were far from over.
“As we speak, the situation is stable but the fire is still not under control,” firefighter commander Matthieu Jomain told reporters. “We remain vigilant of course today, considering the forecast weather conditions, with a new rise in temperatures and higher wind speeds in the afternoon.”
Meanwhile, the EU’s emergency response centre warned that Greece, Italy and Central Europe were set to face heightened wildfire risk in the coming weeks.
DEER KILLED BY FIRE IN SPANISH FOREST
Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, has endured record-breaking heatwaves this year, as human-driven climate change is intensifying the heat and drought that allow wildfires to spread faster.
More frequent and intense heatwaves are causing thousands of excess deaths and increasingly disrupting everyday life, from snarling road and rail travel to hindering river shipping.
Highlighting the devastation of the wildfire on the countryside and wildlife, Reuters drone footage from El Tiemblo, in Spain’s Avila province, near Madrid, showed charred deer carcasses in a forest burnt to ashes.
A Madrid resident who gave her name as Cintia was horrified by the scene in El Tiemblo, a place she has often visited.
“We love this, the wildlife, everything around us. We used to bring food up for the animals because they’re from here. They belong to this land,” she said. “And look where it is today.”
VILLAGERS TRY TO PROTECT THEIR HOMES
The impact on the forests has been widespread. The wildfire in the Landes area west of Bordeaux, a popular tourist destination, has devastated 42,000 hectares (104,000 acres) of mainly pine trees.
Authorities have evacuated about 220,000 people, including holidaymakers and local residents, as the fire threatened the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, only accessible by one road. Hundreds left on specially chartered ferries.
Several companies on the outskirts of the historic city of Bordeaux closed their operations preventively as the flames went as close as 15 km (9 miles) from the metropolitan area.
Raphael Fohanno could not believe what had happened to his parents’ house in the small beach town of Biscarrosse.
“It’s a shock, thinking that just an hour earlier I’d been in my room and everything and now, there’s nothing left. It’s truly sad,” 18-year-old Fohanno said. His parents and sister had been evacuated by helicopter while he was out of the house.
In Lanton, also in the southwestern area of France ravaged by wildfires, volunteers carrying buckets of water have been trying to help protect their village.
“It’s hard, really, very hard, because we don’t have many resources. We try to help people however we can, with the little we have,” local pastry chef Jonathan Segalas-Talous, 29, said on Tuesday.
From Thursday onwards, danger levels in southwestern France appear likely to decrease thanks to some thunderstorms, lower temperatures and increased humidity, but will remain high in the southeast, Meteo France said.
Four people were arrested in recent days in the area, one on suspicion of stealing jewellery from evacuated houses, two for allegedly stealing food from an evacuation centre in Bordeaux, and one for pretending to be a therapist and offering paid sessions to evacuees, police said.
FIRE IN SPAIN’S CASTELLON RAGES FOR FIFTH DAY
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that 10 wildfires remained active across the country, though he expressed optimism that things were going in the right direction.
“Right now, efforts are focused on containing the fire and cooling down affected areas, among other things, in order to prevent any possible re-ignition,” he said.
Officials said the situation had improved in the central provinces of Avila and Madrid, but the blaze in eastern Castellon remained out of control after burning more than 10,000 hectares as weather conditions triggered several flare-ups.
Around 10,000 evacuated residents were still unable to return to their homes in Castellon. The fire’s perimeter is currently estimated at 75.5 km (47 miles), regional authorities said as the fire entered its fifth day on Wednesday.
(Additional reporting by Leonardo Benassatto in La Vilavella, Yves Herman in Bordeaux, David Latona and Emma Pinedo in Madrid, Inti Landauro, Kate Abnett and Sudip Kar-Gupta in Brussels, Janis Laizans in Bordeaux; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Alison Williams and David Holmes)
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