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Wildfires fanned by heatwave rage across Europe, burning houses and factories
13 Aug 2025 16:30
PATRAS/MADRID (REUTERS)Wildfires fanned by a heatwave and strong winds continued to rage across southern Europe on Wednesday, burning houses, farms and factories and forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and 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 on the outskirts of the Greek city of Patras, in the northern Peloponnese west of ordered residents of a town of about 7,700 people near Patras to evacuate on Tuesday and issued new alerts on Wednesday, advising residents of two nearby villages to leave their the Greek islands of Chios, in the east, and Cephalonia, in the west, both popular with tourists, authorities told people to move to safety as fires 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 hosed down blazing houses and warehouses in villages in Castile and Leon, where more than 5,000 people were leader of the Galicia region in the northwest, Alfonso Rueda, called the situation there "complicated" and said the weather was not helping. Six active fires were affecting a combined 10,000 hectares (38 square miles) in Galicia's Ourense Albania, Defence Minister Pirro Vengu said it was a "critical week", with several major wildfires burning across the the southern city of Delvina, evacuees returned to their homes but authorities remained to douse the fires have been hampered by a heatwave across large parts of the was in its 10th day of a heatwave that peaked on Tuesday with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), and which AEMET expected to last until Monday, making it one of the longest on record.
Pope Leo moved his weekly audience from St. Peter's Square to an indoor venue in the Vatican, "to stay a little bit out of the sun and the extreme heat" as Italy's health ministry issued extreme heat warnings for 16 cities on Wednesday, with temperatures forecast to peak at 39C (102F) in Florence.
