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<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 29 Jul 202629 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
Deadly wildfires have spread across Turkiye and Greece after weeks of devastation in Spain, France and Portugal.<\/p>\n
Two firefighters died battling a forest blaze on the Greek island of Crete on Wednesday, the fire department said, as several fires started around the country fanned by gale-force winds.<\/p>\n
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Wildfires also broke out across western Turkiye on Wednesday, destroying homes, shutting down roads and forcing people to evacuate their homes, local media reported.<\/p>\n
The European Union\u2019s crisis management commissioner says the bloc needs to invest more in tackling climate change<\/a> and accelerate its response, as France and Spain prepare for another crippling heatwave that could ignite new wildfires<\/a> and intensify existing blazes.<\/p>\n Hadja Lahbib said the EU must ensure its climate strategy remains in lockstep with realities on the ground, as global warming advances faster than scientists previously projected. She has called for increased funding, better education on fire risk and a renewed focus on forest management.<\/p>\n \u201cClimate change is accelerating. So our response must evolve just as quickly,\u201d Lahbib told Reuters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must prepare for risks before disasters strike and not simply react afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n Lahbib\u2019s comments come as devastating wildfires continue to burn across parts of France and Spain, forcing the evacuation of 330,000 people.<\/p>\n French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the country has \u201cvery likely\u201d carried out its largest civilian evacuation outside of wartime. Around 220,000 people have so far been evacuated in France, and more than 110,000 in Spain have fled their homes.<\/p>\n The EU\u2019s Emergency Response Coordination Centre has warned Italy and parts of central Europe that they could soon face wildfires too.<\/p>\n Europe is the world\u2019s fastest-warming continent. As temperatures rise, evidence continues to emerge that climate change could have severe economic consequences. The annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change found that Europe is woefully unprepared for the health impacts of global warming.<\/p>\n \u2018Extreme\u2019 risk<\/p>\n Authorities in France\u2019s southwestern Gironde region said they were able to keep the wildfires under control overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday. Gironde is the worst-affected area in France. More than 42,000 hectares have burned, an area roughly four times the size of Paris.<\/p>\n The fires in Gironde may have slowed, but they have not been contained. Another approaching heatwave is causing anxiety among officials and residents, who fear the situation could soon become far more volatile.<\/p>\n Temperatures in the area were expected to reach as high as 42C (108F) on Wednesday, while dry winds are likely to fuel the wildfires, Gironde Prefect Sophie Brocas said.<\/p>\n Neighbouring Spain is also grappling with several blazes, but progress has been made, allowing thousands to return to their homes. Spain\u2019s national weather agency has warned that the risk of wildfires will be \u201cvery high or extreme in most of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n In Pelayos de la Presa, 80km southwest of Madrid, people returned to severely damaged homes that had to be demolished. \u201cIt\u2019s a real disaster. Just look at what happened, the state everything\u2019s in. All my memories, I had everything here. My father built it 40 years ago and now everything\u2019s gone,\u201d David Fernandez told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bloc\u2019s crisis management chief calls for more investment and plans to be accelerated as an ominous heatwave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[4442,56613,273,2024,2487,1221,111,43,139,69,147,2029,4998],"class_list":["post-549756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate","tag-climate-crisis","tag-environment","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-spain","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}