Latest news with #CastileandLeon
France 24
2 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Fires keep burning in western Spain as army is deployed
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he had held a "coordination meeting" Saturday, as France and Italy sent water bombers to an air base near Salamanca to help with the firefighting efforts. "The government continues to work to fight the fire with all the means at its disposal," he said on X. The most serious forest fires were in the northwest and west of the country, in the regions of Castile and Leon, Galicia, Asturias and Extremadura. Around 10 roads remain closed across the country, as well as the train line between Madrid and Galicia. Emergency services in Galicia sent alert messages urging residents in dozens of towns to take precautions. "If you receive this alert: remain calm and read the text carefully," the alerts said. "As the fires spread, avoid all unnecessary travel and stay indoors. If you are outside and have nowhere to stay, move away from the affected areas." Around 3,500 military from a special emergency unit were deployed around the country, with some political leaders calling for more. Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, the centre-right president of Castile and Leon, asked Sanchez's government "for an exceptional response: we need more army personnel at the disposal of the regions". Extremadura has also made an official request for reinforcements. In Spain, firefighting is in principle the responsibility of the regions with the central government only intervening in the event of a major disaster. Smoke from wildfires in Spain and Portugal has reached the UK, the country's Met Office reported. Since the beginning of the year, more than 157,000 hectares have been reduced to ashes in Spain, according to the real-time map of the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Climate
- Malay Mail
Spain counts third wildfire death as Greece gains ground against Patras blaze
MADRID, Aug 15 — Spain on Thursday mourned its third wildfire death this week and Greece began beating back a blaze threatening its third-largest city as an unrelenting heatwave stoked tinderbox conditions in southern Europe. The extreme summer heat, which scientists say human-driven climate change is lengthening and intensifying, has fuelled blazes and stretched firefighters across the region, including Portugal and the Balkans. The fires have particularly scorched Spain, devouring over 157,000 hectares this year — more than triple the area burned during the same period in 2024. Spanish authorities said one person battling flames in the north-western Castile and Leon region had died, taking the toll to three after earlier reporting fatalities there and near Madrid this week. Climate change is fuelling larger, more intense wildfires like those in Spain that can alter upper-atmosphere dynamics and create unpredictable winds, making fire behaviour harder to forecast, said Antonio Jordan Lopez, a wildfire expert at the University of Seville. 'Picture a fire so fierce, so fast, and so unpredictable it seems alive, capable of reshaping the weather around it and leaping across kilometres in a heartbeat,' he added. France announced it would send two water bombers to Spain, which has appealed to the European Union for aircraft to reinforce hard-pressed firefighting teams battling on several fronts, notably in the northwest. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes this week in Spain because of the fires, mostly in Castile and Leon. Arson arrests Greece, which has also requested EU assistance against wildfires, gained ground against a major blaze that had closed in on the western port city of Patras. Firefighters there faced 'scattered' pockets of flames but the fire was 'still active' in the eastern outskirts of the city of 250,000 people, fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said. Some 600 ground crews and nearly 30 water bombing aircraft were deployed from dawn in all locations, he said, but gentler winds were helping the firefighting effort. Major outbreaks also stretched emergency services on the tourist island of Zante, the Aegean island of Chios and near the western town of Preveza. Citing data from the EU's Copernicus satellite monitoring programme, the National Observatory of Athens said those fires and the Patras blaze had burned more than 10,000 hectares. Authorities said three men aged 19 to 27 had been detained on suspicion of starting some of the fires around Patras on Tuesday. Spanish investigators said Thursday they had arrested four people suspected of starting forest fires, taking the total number of accused this summer to 30. 'It was frightening' Portugal mobilised more than 1,900 firefighters against four major blazes, with one in the central area of Trancoso having razed an estimated 14,000 hectares since Saturday. Another front that broke out on Wednesday in the mountainous central Arganil area occupied more than 800 firefighters. 'The flames were enormous... it was frightening,' a woman in the village of Mourisia told Sic Noticias television as she gazed at a slope enveloped in thick smoke. Although vulnerable and elderly people had been evacuated as a precaution, Antonio Silva refused to leave the village overnight. 'I wanted to be here to help,' said the man in his 70s, his face shielded with a mask. Expecting tough conditions Friday, the government has extended a state of alert until Sunday, Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral said. The measures bar access to forest areas, suspend some farm work and ban fireworks. The Balkans appeared to have overcome the worst of an exceptionally strong heatwave that worsened its traditional fire season, destroying homes and prompting the evacuation of thousands. Albanian firefighters continued to struggle against blazes around the country, with reports of more homes lost overnight. In neighbouring Montenegro, easing conditions and water-bombing aircraft helped gain the upper hand against wildfires. Tourist hotspots Rome and Venice were among 16 Italian cities placed on red alert for extreme heat, with peaks of 39 Celsius predicted for Florence on the eve of a busy holiday weekend. — AFP
CBC
6 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Crews fight 'fire whirls' and extreme heat in northern Spain
High heat and strong winds cause 'fire whirls' in Spain 40 minutes ago Duration 1:18 Social Sharing Extreme heat and strong winds caused "fire whirls" as a blaze burned several houses and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from near a UNESCO-listed national park in northern Spain, authorities said on Monday. About 800 people were told to abandon their homes in half a dozen villages in the north of the Castile and Leon region, where several wildfires were raging. Residents of the town of Congosta were spraying houses, trees and pavement with their garden hoses to fend off the flames that devoured at least two buildings, while police told them to prepare for evacuation. The smoke was too thick for firefighting aircraft to deploy. "There are already several houses that have burned down, we don't know what to do anymore. We're completely defenceless and have been abandoned," said Congosta resident Evangelina Peral Delgado, 70. High temperatures on Sunday had caused the fire whirls near Las Medulas park, forcing firefighters to retreat, said Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones, chief of environment for the regional government. "This occurs when temperatures reach around 40 C in a very confined valley, and then suddenly [the fire] enters a more open and oxygenated area. This produces a fireball, a fire whirl." Scientists say the Mediterranean region's hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. Once fires start, dry vegetation and strong winds can cause them to spread rapidly and burn out of control, sometimes provoking fire whirls. A prolonged heatwave in Spain continued on Monday, with temperatures set to reach 42 C in some regions. Domingo Aparicio, 77, was evacuated to a nearby town from his home in Cubo de Benavente on Sunday after a warehouse in front of his home burned down. "How am I supposed to feel?" he said. "It's always shocking for people close to the catastrophe." Two or three fires may have been started by lightning strikes, Suarez-Quinones said, but there were indications that the majority were the result of arson, which he described as "environmental terrorism." In the northern part of neighbouring Portugal, nearly 700 firefighters were battling a blaze that started on Saturday in Trancoso, some 350 kilometres northeast of Lisbon. So far this year about 52,000 hectares, or 0.6 per cent of Portugal's total area, have burned, exceeding the 2006-2024 average for the same period by about 10,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
