![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Spain_Wildfire_51168.jpg\")
A view of a burnt area affected by wildfires in Bedar, near Almeria, Spain, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Marrero) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)<\/p>\nYour support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n
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A wildfire swept through \u200btowns on France’s Mediterranean coast near Frejus on Sunday, threatening homes and forcing the evacuation of several hamlets as \u2060strong winds and drought conditions fuelled its rapid spread, local authorities said.<\/p>\n
“The fire spread extremely quickly in the context of this heatwave and extreme \u2060drought,” local prefect Simon \u200bBabre \u2060told BFM TV.<\/p>\n
The blaze had scorched about 180 hectares (445 acres) by Sunday evening, \u2060the prefect’s office said.<\/p>\n
Images showed large \u200bflames \u2060advancing behind hillside villas \u200ctypical of the French Riviera, while thick black smoke billowed above pine and cypress \u200ctrees. Train services between the Mediterranean \u200cport of Toulon and Les Arcs were suspended because of the fire.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in Europe, Spain’s weather agency AEMET warned temperatures would start rising again at the weekend, with highs potentially reaching 42-44 C in parts \u2060of the Andalusia and La Mancha regions next week. Forecasters also warned of an extreme wildfire risk as hot, dry air from North Africa advances across much of the country.<\/p>\n
Firefighters were also tackling wildfires near Madrid and in Guadalajara province, where around 1,500 hectares have burned and a summer camp was \u200cevacuated as a precaution. A week ago, one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires on record killed at least 13 people, mostly foreigners, in \u200bthe southern province of Almeria.<\/p>\n
A view of a burnt area affected by wildfires in Bedar, near Almeria, Spain, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Marrero) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
In Greece’s metropolitan area of Athens, authorities went on high alert for wildfire risks, with drones equipped \u200cwith thermal cameras patrolling over forests and water cannons stationed outside campsites.<\/p>\n
The World Meteorological Organization last \u2060month warned that the record temperatures that baked Western Europe for over a week in late June would worsen the risk of wildfires, given the outlook for sustained high temperatures, very low humidity and dry vegetation.<\/p>\n
According to \u200cthe Reuters Climate Monitor, the average \u200bhigh in the town of Les \u200cArcs, where the fire \u2060was raging, was forecast to be \u206038 degrees Celsius, which is 11.4 degrees above the \u200cnormal high for \u200bJuly 19 between \u200c1961 and 1990.<\/p>\n
Earlier \u2060this month, the World Health Organization warned that Europe could face “more deadly weeks ahead” from new heatwaves forming over the Atlantic. Scientists monitoring \u2060so-called excess deaths said there were thousands more fatalities recorded than normal during a heatwave that swept through Europe and Britain at the end of June.<\/p>\n
“Nearly 10,000 excess deaths, and the summer \u200cis not yet over,” said Dr Hans Henri \u200bP. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, criticising governments for “still treating heat as \u200ca weather event rather than a health emergency”, despite existing tools and WHO \u200bguidance to prevent most of these deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-559005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}