‘It looks like doomsday' – wildfires blaze as European heatwave persists

Irish Independent

2 days ago

Fire has affected nearly 440,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) in the eurozone so far in 2025 – double the average for the same period since 2006, according to the EU Science Hub's Joint Research Centre.
In the Greek city of Patras, west of Athens, flames and dark smoke billowed over a cement factory that was set alight by a wildfire that swept through olive groves and forests, and disrupted rail traffic.
'What does it look like? It looks like doomsday. May God help us and help the people here,' said Giorgos Karvanis, a volunteer who had come from Athens to help.
Authorities ordered residents of a town of about 7,700 people near Patras to evacuate on Tuesday, and issued new alerts yesterday advising residents of two nearby villages to leave.
On the Greek islands of Chios and Cephalonia – both popular with tourists – authorities told people to move to safety as fires spread.
In Spain, a volunteer firefighter died from severe burns and several people were hospitalised as state weather agency AEMET warned that almost all of the country was at extreme or very high risk of fire.
The 35-year-old man had been attempting to create firebreaks near the town of Nogarejas – in the central Castile and Leon region – when he was trapped in the blaze, regional officials said.
He was the sixth person to die this year in wildfires in Spain. Others include two firefighters in Tarragona and Avila, according to emergency services.
Working in unprepared landscapes was putting firefighters' lives at risk, said Alexander Held, a senior expert in fire management at the European Forest Institute, adding that authorities should prepare by creating buffer zones and clearing combustible vegetation.
'Take an industrial building and imagine there would be no fire detectors, no sprinkler systems, no fire protection doors and no escape routes – firefighters would just refuse to go in, but in our landscape we expect them to do this,' Mr Held said.
Investing €1bn a year in forest management could save 9.9 million hectares – an area the size of Portugal – and €99bn spent on fighting fires and restoration work afterwards, according to Greenpeace.
Spanish environment minister Sara Aagesen said many fires across the country were thought to be the work of arsonists due to their 'virulence'.
A male firefighter was arrested on Tuesday for fires started in the Avila area north of Madrid two weeks ago, while police said they were investigating a 63-year-old woman for allegedly starting fires in Galicia's Muxia area.
Police have also identified a suspect who is believed to have burnt his hands after starting a small fire in a beachfront development in the southern coastal Cadiz area.
Thunderstorms have caused other fires.
We can't do anything; it is like gunpowder
On Tuesday, shortly after 5pm, Andalusia's fire department was flooded with calls by residents reporting a fire caused by a lightning strike on a forest in Los Romeros, north-west of Seville. The fire prompted the evacuation of around 250 residents, but was largely controlled by yesterday morning.
A blaze in Trancoso in Portugal that has been burning since Saturday got worse on Tuesday night as lightning reignited an area that was thought safe, the civil protection service said.
In Albania, defence minister Pirro Vengu said it was a 'critical week', with several major wildfires burning across the country. About 10,000 firefighters, soldiers and police emergency units struggled with a total of 24 wildfires yesterday, the defence ministry said.
Flames reached two villages in the centre of the country, forcing villagers to flee, taking their livestock with them.
'We are going in the middle of two rivers because the fire has arrived,' said Hajri Dragoti (68), from Narte, who fled with his wife, taking a cow, a donkey and a dog. 'We can't do anything; it is like gunpowder.'
Spain was in its 10th day of a heatwave that peaked on Tuesday with temperatures as high as 45C. AEMET expected the heatwave to last until next Monday, making it one of the longest on record.
Pope Leo XIV moved his weekly audience from St Peter's Square to an indoor venue in the Vatican, as Italy's health ministry issued extreme heat warnings for 16 cities yesterday.