Greece, Spain and Portugal race to contain wildfires as EU steps up cross-border help
A drop in wind speeds allowed firefighting aircraft in the three hard-hit countries to step up water drops, concentrating on existing fire zones rather than chasing fast-moving fronts. Authorities warned that extreme temperatures are likely to persist.
Spanish authorities reported the death of a 37-year-old volunteer firefighter who sustained severe burns in an area north of Madrid this week. It was the third reported death in Spain due to the recent fires. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the region and still can't return.
In Greece, the Fire Service said a major blaze outside the southern port city of Patras has been contained on the outskirts of urban areas after a large-scale deployment. Three people have been arrested in connection with the fire, which authorities said may have been deliberately set.
The European Union's civil protection agency said it responded to requests for assistance this week from Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania, sending firefighting planes and helicopters from other member states.
The agency said it had already activated assistance 16 times amid this summer's wildfires as European countries have been hit by "a high number of catastrophic wildfires."
The number of activations for 2025 already matches the total for wildfires during the entire 2024 fire season, it said.
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Nahar Net
a day ago
- Nahar Net
Greece, Spain and Portugal race to contain wildfires as EU steps up cross-border help
Fire crews in Greece, Spain and Portugal raced Thursday to contain wildfires, taking advantage of calmer winds that slowed the blazes' advance. Much of southern Europe, however, remains at high risk under hot, dry conditions. A drop in wind speeds allowed firefighting aircraft in the three hard-hit countries to step up water drops, concentrating on existing fire zones rather than chasing fast-moving fronts. Authorities warned that extreme temperatures are likely to persist. Spanish authorities reported the death of a 37-year-old volunteer firefighter who sustained severe burns in an area north of Madrid this week. It was the third reported death in Spain due to the recent fires. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the region and still can't return. In Greece, the Fire Service said a major blaze outside the southern port city of Patras has been contained on the outskirts of urban areas after a large-scale deployment. Three people have been arrested in connection with the fire, which authorities said may have been deliberately set. The European Union's civil protection agency said it responded to requests for assistance this week from Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania, sending firefighting planes and helicopters from other member states. The agency said it had already activated assistance 16 times amid this summer's wildfires as European countries have been hit by "a high number of catastrophic wildfires." The number of activations for 2025 already matches the total for wildfires during the entire 2024 fire season, it said.
MTV Lebanon
2 days ago
- MTV Lebanon
Spain Wildfires a Clear Warning on Climate Emergency
The heatwave-fuelled wildfires that have killed two people in Spain over recent days, devouring thousands of hectares of land and forcing thousands of people from their homes, are a 'clear warning' of the impact of the climate emergency, the country's environment minister has said. Speaking on Wednesday morning, as firefighters in Spain, Greece and other Mediterranean countries continued to battle dozens of blazes, Sara Aagesen said the 14 wildfires still burning across seven Spanish regions were further proof of the country's particular vulnerability to global heating. Aagesen said that while some of the fires appeared to have been started deliberately, the deadly blazes were a clear indicator of the climate emergency and of the need for better preparation and prevention. 'The fires are one of the parts of the impact of that climate change, which is why we have to do all we can when it comes to prevention,' she told Cadena Ser radio. 'Our country is especially vulnerable to climate change. We have resources now but, given that the scientific evidence and the general expectation point to it having an ever greater impact, we need to work to reinforce and professionalise those resources.' The Spanish government on Wednesday said it has asked the European Union for its help, in particular for two water-bombing planes. 'We officially asked tonight' for the assistance, interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Cadena Ser. Aagesen's comments came a day after temperatures in parts of southern Spain surged past 45C (113F). The state meteorological office, Aemet, said there were no recorded precedents for the temperatures experienced between 1 August and 20 August. A 35-year-old volunteer firefighter died on Tuesday in the north-western Spanish region of Castilla y León, where fires have prompted the evacuation of more than 8,000 residents, and where seven people are being treated in hospital for serious burns. Four are in a critical condition. The firefighter's death came hours after that of a 50-year-old man who suffered 98% burns while trying to save horses from a burning stable near Madrid on Monday night. By Wednesday morning, the Madrid fire had been brought under control, but blazes in the far north-western region Galicia had consumed 11,500 hectares (30,000 acres) of land by the end of the day. 'Emergency teams are continuing to fight fires across our country,' the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said in a post on X on Wednesday. 'The fire situation remains serious and extreme caution is essential. My thanks, once again, to all of you who are working tirelessly to fight the flames.' Neighbouring Portugal deployed more than 2,100 firefighters and 20 aircraft against five big blazes, with efforts focused on a fire in the central municipality of Trancoso that has raged since Saturday. Strong gusts of wind had rekindled flames overnight and threatened nearby villages, where television images showed local people volunteering to help firefighters under a thick cloud of smoke. In Greece, which requested EU aerial assistance on Tuesday, close to 5,000 firefighters were battling blazes fanned by gale-force winds nationwide. Authorities said emergency workers were waging a 'a titanic battle' to douse flames still raging through the western Peloponnese, in Epirus farther north, and on the islands of Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Chios, where thousands of residents and tourists have been evacuated from homes and hotels. Local media reported the wildfires had decimated houses, farms and factories and forced people to flee. Fifteen firefighters and two volunteers had suffered burns and other injuries including 'symptoms of heatstroke', the fire service said. Around midnight a huge blaze erupted on Chios, devouring land that had only begun to recover from devastating wildfires in June. As the flames reached the shores, the coastguard rushed to remove people on boats to safety. On the other side of Greece, outside the western city of Patras, volunteers with the Hellenic Red Cross struggled to contain infernos barrelling towards villages and towns. By lunchtime on Wednesday, media footage showed flames on the outskirts of Patras, Greece's third-largest city. Municipal authorities announced a shelter had been set up to provide refuge, food and water for those in need. Officials evacuated a children's hospital and a retirement home in the city as a precaution, and local media footage showed the roof of a 17th-century monastery outside the city on fire.
Nahar Net
2 days ago
- Nahar Net
At least 3 dead and thousands displaced as wildfires rage across southern Europe
Wildfires intensified across southern Europe on Wednesday after a nightlong battle to protect the perimeter of Greece's third-largest city, with at least three more deaths reported in Spain, Turkey and Albania. Outside the Greek port city of Patras, firefighters struggled to protect homes and agricultural facilities as flames tore through pine forests and olive groves. Tall columns of flames exploded behind apartment blocks on the outskirts of the city, while dozens of vehicles were torched as flames swept through a nearby impound lot. "Today is another very difficult day with the level of fire risk remaining very high across many parts of the country," Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis said. As water-dropping planes and helicopters swooped overhead, residents joined the effort, beating back flames with cut branches or dousing them with buckets of water. After heatwaves, resources stretched thin Firefighting resources were stretched thin in many affected countries as they battled multiple outbreaks following weeks of heat waves and temperature spikes across the Mediterranean. On the Greek island of Chios, exhausted firefighters slept on the roadside following a night-long shift. Aircraft rotated between blazes on the western Greek mainland, the Patras area and the island of Zakynthos. Athens also sent assistance to neighboring Albania, joining an international effort to combat dozens of wildfires. An 80-year-old man died in one blaze south of the capital, Tirana, officials said Wednesday. Residents of four villages were evacuated in central Albania near a former army ammunition depot. In the southern Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried World War II-era artillery shells. Authorities said dozens of homes were gutted in a central region of the country. Deaths in Spain and Turkey Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed condolences after the death of a firefighting volunteer in the hard-hit Castile and León region north of Madrid, where thousands have been displaced by evacuations. "The wildfire situation remains serious, and taking extra precautions is essential," Sánchez wrote in an online post. "Thank you, once again, to all those working tirelessly to fight the flames." Evacuation centers were filled to capacity in parts of central Spain, with some spending the night outdoors on folding beds. The most severe fires pushed northward into more rural areas, where some residents hosed the walls of their homes to try and protect them from fire. The government raised its national emergency response level, preparing additional support for regional authorities overseeing multiple evacuations and highway closures. A forestry worker was killed Wednesday while responding to a wildfire in southern Turkey, officials said. The Forestry Ministry said the worker died in an accident involving a fire truck that left four others injured. Turkey has been battling severe wildfires since late June. A total of 18 people have been killed, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers who died in July. In France, which is recovering from massive recent fires in the southern regions, temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) were expected for the third consecutive day. Officials issued weather alerts giving local authorities discretion to cancel public events and cordon off areas with high fire risks. Lightning storms and farming practices cited as possible causes Authorities across European countries have cited multiple causes for the massive fires, including careless farming practices, improperly maintained power cables and summer lightning storms. Law enforcement officials in North Macedonia also cited indications of arson, motivated by rogue developers. Firefighters struggled to contain a blaze at a nature reserve outside the capital, Skopje on Wednesday. The European Union has rushed aid to fire-hit countries, including non-member states, with ground crews and water-dropping aircraft. Much of the recent effort was concentrated on Montenegro, where major wildfires continued to burn in rugged areas near the capital, Podgorica. "Natural disasters know no borders," Ljuban Tmusic, head of Montenegro's civil protection agency said. "In Montenegro the resources we have ... are clearly not enough." —- Semini reported from Tirana, Albania. Suman Naishadham in Madrid, Andrew Wilks in Istanbul, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, North Macedonia contributed.
