Firefighters in France and Spain have rushed to contain the worst wildfires in living memory, seizing crucial hours before the arrival of another wave of searing temperatures.
Blazes have ripped through vast swathes of woodland in both countries, incinerating properties and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people – residents and tourists alike.
A large wildfire 15km from the outskirts of the French winemaking capital of Bordeaux created a rare pyrocumulonimbus cloud – a phenomenon that can create wind and lightning.
The huge fire raging in France’s southwestern region of Gironde has not progressed overnight, the prefecture said today. “The burned area has not increased,” it said.
In the southwestern city’s surrounding Gironde region, tractors fitted with blades to clear land, pickups towing water tanks and logging trucks sped to join a convoy of fire engines yesterday.
“We want to help… I want nature to stay like it is,” said 25-year-old farmer and wood transporter Christopher Bonnefond.
New heatwaves are expected to hit western Europe this week, with searing temperatures returning in France from today, and in Spain from tomorrow, meteorologists said.
Firefighters in Spain meanwhile made progress during a “positive night” against wildfires raging west of Madrid that have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, said Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
Mr Grande-Marlaska said the coming hours would be “absolutely decisive” to tame fires burning west of the capital, Madrid.
In France, the focus was on the blaze near Bordeaux.
Firefighters said the fire had not expanded overnight as they managed to tackle several flareups.
French firefighters spray water to extinguish residual flames in a smoke-filled pine forest near Marcheprime
French President Emmanuel Macron warned of hard times ahead as he visited a crisis centre in the city.
“The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out,” he said.
Over the past six days, the wildfire near Bordeaux has ravaged 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres), forced 220,000 people to flee and destroyed 240 houses.
“Mobilisation is still full and complete, particularly on the eve of a day that is expected to be marked by a significant rise in temperatures and a drop in humidity,” the prefect of Gironde said late yesterday, describing the situation as “highly unpredictable”.
‘Lost everything’
Mr Macron said a smaller fire in the adjoining Landes – which had nonetheless forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people – was now “contained”.
But he warned it “remains virulent and we must be extremely cautious over the next few hours and the coming days”.
This was due to the “conditions of climate change in which we will live,” he said.
The Landes fire affected 500 hectares in 24 hours, the fire department said.
Some 15,000 people in the region were able to return home yesterday evening, according to the prefect of Landes.
In Spain, where blazes were burning west of Madrid, some 60,000 people have also been evacuated.
A wooden area engulfed in flames in Marcheprime, west of Bordeaux in France
At a sports hall just outside Madrid, displaced people sprawled on camp beds, held their heads in their hands and comforted pets.
Maria Angeles Canete fought back tears as she looked around the desolation that used to be her campsite near Navaluenga, west of the capital.
“We lost everything,” she said. “We had this campsite, we had another one, and we’ve lost it all. We have nothing.”
Watch: Firefighters battle wildfire in Spain’s Castellon province
The European Union yesterday announced more water-bombing planes were being sent to France, in addition to those already deployed to Spain.
The European Union said it would deploy additional aircraft to Spain to help combat the fires, the bloc’s crisis management chief told AFP.
“We currently have nine aerial assets deployed on site, and tomorrow we will have 11, drawn from our European strategic reserve,” said EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib.
Ms Lahbib said that its fleet was increasingly stretched due to fears they may soon be needed elsewhere.
“Extreme conditions are looming for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, in addition to France, the Iberian Peninsula… where the situation is expected to worsen, including in Portugal starting today,” Ms Lahbib said.
Several fires broke out in northern and central Portugal, with over 1,000 firefighters and other professionals fighting the flames, supported by around 20 planes and helicopters, civil protection services said.
Watch: Scorched aftermath of France’s wildfire fight in Bordeaux region
‘You run to save what you can and then you turn to defend’
The scale of the devastation from the Spanish fires is vast in the worst-affected areas.
Pine trees smouldered with blackened trunks and smoke rose from charred forests, with the burnt-out husks of cars and houses reduced to shells, reporters said.
“You run to save what you can and then you turn to defend,” said Karim Benali, 39, a volunteer firefighter on a road near Navaluenga, in Spain.
That country has seen 77,000 hectares – nearly the size of New York City – destroyed.
David Sanchez, a 48-year-old, had just returned home to Cebreros after evacuating at the weekend to find that his small olive and pistachio grove had been consumed.
“Now it’s time to clean up and plant again and that’s it… and the fire has flared up again down there,” he said, surrounded by choking air that stung the eyes and throat.
Some 150,000 hectares of land have burned in Spain and 115,000 hectares in France since the start of this year.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: “I ask for understanding and call on all citizens in all the country to exercise extreme caution and take every possible precaution.”
“We face difficult hours, complex hours” ahead, he warned.
Mr Sánchez has called the fires “the most painful expression of a climate emergency”.
Spain’s AEMET meteorological agency officially declared a new heatwave would begin tomorrow, lasting until the end of the week.
It earlier said temperatures would soar and humidity levels drop across Spain, causing the fire risk to “surge to very high or extreme levels across almost the entire country”.
“This situation will persist, or may even worsen, in the following days,” it added.
Temperatures are also predicted to rise again in France, which is battling two major fires on its Atlantic coast.
MeteoFrance forecast more hot weather of up to 40C from today with dry wind.
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