Forest Fires Rage Across Europe As Deadly Heatwave Reaches Record Temperatures

Firefighters in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and Morocco are battling forest fires raging across tens of thousands of hectares as this week’s heatwave continues to bring extreme temperatures and cause hundreds of deaths across south-western Europe.

- Sam Jones

The second heatwave of the summer – with temperatures hitting 47C (116F) in Portugal and 45C in Spain – has triggered wildfires that have forced the evacuation of thousands .

In Portugal, the meteorological institute forecast temperatures of up to 42C with no respite before next week. The civil defence authorities, however, took advantage of a slight drop in temperatures after a July record of 47C last Thursday to try to stamp out one remaining large fire in the north of the country.

“The risk of fires remains very high,” the civil defence chief, André Fernandes, said, although media reports said the number of active mainland fires was down to 11 from 20 .

“This is a weekend of extreme vigilance,” he added, after a week in which two people were killed and more than 60 injured, and up to 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of forest and brushwood incinerated.

Around Portugal as a whole, 39,550 hectares were ravaged by wildfires from the start of the year until midJune, more than triple the area in the same period last year, data from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests showed.

The Lisbon government was to decide yesterday whether to extend a week-long state of contingency . Portugal’s health ministry said 238 people had died as a result of the heatwave from 7 -13 July, most of them elderly people with underlying conditions.

In Spain, the state meteorological agency maintained various levels of alert across the country, warning of temperatures of up to 44C in some regions.