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A second heat wave is sweeping Europe and many places are on fire again.
On the Atlantic coast in France, south of Bordeaux, the situation is coming to a head: around 600 firefighters and six fire-fighting planes are on duty, thousands of tourists and residents have had to be evacuated.
Landiras, France
Mylene Doreau Mayor Guillos
“My town is empty, maybe two or three people, but there's nobody left. Seeing the fires near the houses and having to evacuate people against their will, that was remarkable... Everyone has dogs, cats, chickens, they wanted to save everything, but they had to leave quickly
.«
La Teste-de-Buch, France
evacuees
“The police woke us up in the night and told us not to panic. We would have 30 minutes to leave the house and could only take the essentials with us. They asked us to come here to the exhibition hall. When we arrived everything went well, there was no panic. The situation was handled well.«
The fires have already destroyed more than 1,700 hectares of land.
Thick plumes of smoke can be seen over the famous Dune du Pilat, the largest dune in Europe and a tourist attraction.
An easing of the situation is not in sight: in the Gironde region, five campsites have been cleared and 6,000 people have been brought to safety.
Temperatures of more than 37 degrees are expected on Wednesday.
The French weather service issued a heat warning.
Strong winds, high temperatures and fire: there are also fires in several places in Portugal.
Two forest fires were contained in the meantime, but flared up again on Tuesday.
Severe fires are raging in particular in the center of the country, north of Lisbon.
30 people were slightly injured, one person died.
More than 1,500 firefighters are deployed in the towns of Leiria, Pombal and Ourém.
Ourem, Portugal
Joaquim Gomes, local resident
"I have never experienced anything like it. I've lived here for 50 years, but I can't remember anything like that. It is everywhere. It's here and there, Casais de Brás, Caxarias - everywhere.
«
Portugal's meteorological institute issued a red alert for 16 of the 18 districts on the mainland on Wednesday.
Temperatures of over 40 degrees are predicted for large parts of the country, in the Santarém region it should even be 46 degrees.
Spain and Italy are also affected by forest fires.