Latest news with #LaPazhospital
The National
12-08-2025
- Climate
- The National
Man dies as European wildfires spread to edge of Madrid
Firefighters have contained a wildfire near the Spanish capital Madrid which killed one person and prompted the evacuation of 180 people, regional authorities said on Tuesday. Favourable overnight conditions allowed for the fire to be contained, the Community of Madrid said. A man who had been taken by helicopter to the La Paz hospital after suffering burns on 98 per cent of his body, later died, the Community of Madrid said. The fire has affected more than 1,000 hectares. A prolonged heatwave in Spain continued on Tuesday, with temperatures set to reach 44 degrees Celsius in some regions, according to meteorology service AEMET. Large parts of Europe are facing wildfire threats, as scorching weather bakes the region this week. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heatwaves in Europe, causing more extreme weather events such as the deadly wildfires that ravaged Aude in south-west France last week. Red heat warnings have been issued for Spain, France, Croatia, Serbia and Romania, as a high-pressure system is amplified by former tropical storm Dexter. Temperatures are forecast to exceed 42C in south-west France on Tuesday. In Italy, a young boy died of heatstroke in Italy on Monday. The four-year-old Romanian boy died days after being found unconscious in the family's car in Sardinia. The boy was airlifted to a Rome hospital but died of irreversible brain damage, the hospital told AFP on Monday. The news came as Italy's Health Ministry issued a red alert warning for seven major cities, including Bologna and Florence. Extreme heat and strong winds caused the Dardanelles Strait to briefly shut to shipping on Monday evening. The Dardanelles – a vital maritime chokepoint for oil and gas from the Black Sea and Central Asia – was quickly reopened after being closed to allow firefighting aircraft to scoop water from the sea to tackle nearby blazes. Turkish firefighters contained wildfires ravaging its north Aegean coast, but towns and pine forests in Canakkale province are still threatened, and about 2,900 residents have been evacuated, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Several forest fires ignited overnight in Greece, leading to evacuation orders at Koiliomenos on the island of Zakinthos, at Lagkada and Argostoli on the island of Kefallonia and in the centre of the country at Varko in Etoloakarnania. Forest fires are also raging in Montenegro, the Adriatic state heavily reliant on summer tourism. The worst hit areas are near the capital Podgorica, and on the coast, close to popular resorts where fire from a broken car quickly spread, endangering homes and hotels. The government has called for international help, with neighbouring Serbia already dispatching firefighting helicopters. Wildfires in Italy and Scotland this week also forced authorities to close tourist areas near Vesuvius National Park and Arthur's Seat, respectively.
Daily Mail
12-08-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
FIREBALLS hit Spain as wildfires spark freak 'fire whirls' and reach Madrid, killing one person as Europe's heatwave hell continues
Extreme heat and strong winds in Spain caused 'fire whirls' on Monday night, as a hellish blaze burned several houses and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people, killing one person in the capital. Firefighters have managed to contain a wildfire in the Tres Cantos suburb, northeast of Madrid, after 180 people were evacuated overnight. A man who had been taken by helicopter to the La Paz hospital after suffering burns on 98 percent of his body, later died, the Community of Madrid said this morning. The fire ripped through more than 1,000 hectares. Elsewhere in Spain, wildfires sparked by infernal temperatures in the north of the country prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people near a UNESCO-listed national park. 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 evacuatio 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 so-called fire whirls near Las Medulas park, forcing firemen to retreat said Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones, chief of environment for the regional government. 'This occurs when temperatures reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in a very confined valley and then suddenly (the fire) enters a more open and oxygenated area. This produces a fireball, a fire whirl,' he said. 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 42C 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? It's always shocking for people close to the catastrophe,' he said. 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 200 miles northeast of Lisbon. So far this year about 200 square miles or 0.6 percent 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. Firefighters were also battling blazes in Navarra in northeastern Spain and in Huelva in the southwest, authorities said.
