Firefighters in France and Spain rushed to contain the worst wildfires in living memory yesterday, seizing crucial hours before the arrival of another wave brings scorching temperatures.
Flames have torn through vast swathes of forest in both countries, incinerating properties and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the fires “the most painful expression of a climate emergency”, while French President Emmanuel Macron said: “The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.”
And with a fresh heatwave expected to hit western Europe this week -- with oven-like temperatures returning in France from yesterday and Spain from today according to meteorologists -- firefighters are racing against time to bring the infernos under control.
French firefighters were “on the offensive” insisted commander Eric Pitault, as he stood in the middle of a 50-metre-wide, 25-kilometre-long firebreak cut with the help of civilian volunteers on the Cap Ferret peninsula, though he admitted his teams were tired.
For now, though, the Guardia Civil gendarmerie was blocking their return, blaming the risk of smoke inhalation.
Over the past six days, the wildfire near Bordeaux has affected 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres), forced 220,000 people to flee and destroyed 240 houses.
The prefect’s office said that while there had been flare-ups overnight in the north of the peninsula, these were under control and the burnt area had not increased.
Outside Spain’s Aldea del Fresno, on the edge of the vast fires burning west of Madrid, evacuated locals queued up in their cars in the hope of returning to properties and pets.
They were among 60,000 people forced to flee by fires that have consumed 77,000 hectares (190,000 acres), an area almost the size of New York City.
Europe has been gripped by successive heatwaves and a major drought this year, which scientists have attributed to human-caused climate change.
