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Forest fire between Carcassonne and Narbonne: In France alone, 100,000 households were temporarily without electricity
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Idriss Bigou-Gilles / dpa
While many people in Germany are still struggling with the floods of the last few days and their consequences, large-scale fires are raging in regions of Spain, France and Italy.
In northeastern Spain, for example, a forest fire around 100 kilometers west of Barcelona has gotten out of control.
The flames have so far destroyed 1,100 hectares of forest and farmland, said the forestry authority of Catalonia on Twitter.
There is a risk that the wind, which usually sets in around noon in the region, will continue to heat the fire with high temperatures of around 30 degrees and great drought.
Up to 5000 hectares are directly threatened.
It was the biggest forest fire of the year in the wooded region of Catalonia, wrote the newspaper »El Periódico«.
Ash has already reached parts of Barcelona.
In the south of France, too, bushes and forests burned between the cities of Narbonne and Carcassonne, on an area of around 8.5 square kilometers.
The French authorities have deployed over 1,000 firefighters and rescuers, as Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced via Twitter.
In addition, fire-fighting planes were deployed in the Aude department in the south of France.
According to media reports, nobody was injured at first.
The fire had ignited for a previously unknown cause and then spread.
On Saturday, the fire triggered power outages in France, Spain and Portugal as there was a malfunction on a high-voltage line.
In France alone, over 100,000 households have now been affected, as the network operator RTE announced, according to information from the German Press Agency (dpa).
In the middle of the night, a wildfire hit several hundred residents in the west of the Italian island of Sardinia: Around 400 people had to leave their homes, reported Italian media. Among other things, residents of the town of Cuglieri were affected. Some residents could have returned in the morning when the situation improved slightly, it said. The "enormous fire" has been destroying the fields in the region since Saturday, wrote the newspaper "Nuova Sardegna".
Emergency forces will continue the fight against the flames on Sunday.
Several fire-fighting planes and helicopters were in use over the island, as the Italian news agency Ansa reported, citing authorities.
The fire risk therefore remained high.
According to media reports, fires had also broken out in other parts of the country.
Authorities warned of continued high temperatures on Monday.
According to initial estimates by the authorities, the flames in the west of the island between Santu Lussurgiu and Cuglieri had covered several thousand hectares.
Houses were also damaged, as the media reported.
The Coldiretti Agricultural Association spoke of a "disaster" and considerable damage to agriculture.
Pastures, forests and in some cases animals have been lost, it said.
ime / dpa
