Forest fires keep southern Europe in suspense: a number of people in Tuscany evacuated - no end in sight
Created: 07/22/2022, 05:02
By: Patrick Mayer, Markus Hofstetter, Christina Denk
Heat and drought are troubling southern Europe.
Where forest fires rage between Spain, France and Italy.
And you can read about the consequences of this in our news ticker.
Longest
heat wave
of all time in
Mallorca
: up to 43 degrees are possible on the Balearic island.
Orange alert in the
Basque Country
: Regional government warns of "very high" risk of forest fires.
Forest fire
on the
Italian-Slovenian
border: A section of the motorway is closed.
This
news ticker on the risk of forest fires and heat in southern Europe
has ended.
All the latest news can be found in our new ticker.
Update from July 20, 6:46 a.m .:
In Italy, the fire brigade brought more than 100 people in Tuscany to safety because of a large forest fire near Lucca.
According to the fire department on Tuesday evening (July 19), the people of the small town of Fibbialla had been evacuated.
The fire in the municipality of Massarosa has been occupying the emergency services since Monday evening.
According to Eugenio Giani, the regional president of Tuscany, an area of about 400 hectares is affected.
The smoke had already spread to the surrounding provinces.
Photos showed dense dark smoke billowing from a wooded hillside.
In the meantime, five helicopters and four fire-fighting aircraft fought the flames from the air.
On the express train route between Florence and Rome there were brief interruptions due to a fire near the Allerona tracks, as reported by the media.
In north-eastern Italy, a major fire in a forest kept the fire brigade busy.
A section of the freeway was temporarily closed.
Officials at a toll booth were escorted to safety by authorities as the flames approached.
There is a fire in the popular Italian holiday region of Tuscany.
The fire brigade had to evacuate a number of people.
© dpa/Vigili del Fuoco
Devastating forest fires in Portugal: Government suspects carelessness and arson
Update from July 19, 10:30 p.m .:
According to the government, the devastating forest fires of the past few days and weeks in the holiday destination of Portugal are also due to carelessness and intentional arson.
More than 50 people were arrested by mid-July this year on suspicion of being responsible for fires in the forest, Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro told a parliamentary committee of inquiry on Tuesday.
That was more than 20 arrests more than in the same period last year, he explained.
According to the authorities' findings, only 23 percent of all fires in Portugal have purely natural causes, he said.
Around 60 percent are caused by carelessness when using fire, such as grilling and smoking, or by lighting campfires.
According to Carneiro, 13 percent involved intentional arson.
The remaining four percent would be caused by the use of agricultural machinery, the minister explained.
Portugal is doing everything to make society aware of the risks and to take preventive measures.
According to the nature conservation authority ICNF, fires in Portugal have already destroyed almost 60,000 hectares in just over six and a half months this year.
That is more than twice as much as in the whole of the previous year (28,415 hectares).
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Reasons for forest fires in Portugal: | Percentage: |
Inattention to fire, such as grilling and smoking | 60 percent |
natural causes | 23 percent |
intentional arson | 13 percent |
use of agricultural machinery | 4 percent |
Heat in Spain: Forest fires are raging in Catalonia, Castilla y León and Galicia
Update from July 19, 7:35 p.m .:
As reported by the Barcelona-based Catalan daily
La Vanguardia
, more than 30,000 hectares of forest have already been destroyed in the terrible fires in Spain.
And there is no end in sight because of the very hot temperatures.
The most worrying are the wildfires in Catalonia, Castilla y León and Galicia, the report says.
While the situation in Extremadura and Andalusia has stabilized somewhat in the southwest of the country.
Orange alert in the Basque Country: Regional government warns of "very high" risk of forest fires
Update from July 19, 6:15 p.m .:
The Spanish Basque Country maintains the orange alert due to the risk of forest fires.
The regional government explained this because of the "very high" risk of forest fires in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.
In the Cantabria region with the city of Santander in the north of the Basque Country, on the other hand, the somewhat weakened yellow alert level applies.
All of Spain has been suffering from an uninterrupted heat wave for weeks.
Longest heat wave of all time in Mallorca: up to 43 degrees possible on the Balearic island
Update from July 19, 5:15 p.m .:
“Mallorca is experiencing the longest heat wave since weather data began to be recorded!” The newspaper of the same name, based on the Balearic Island, writes this Tuesday.
Accordingly, temperatures of up to 38 degrees were measured today.
The peak of the heat wave in Mallorca should not be reached until the beginning of next week.
As the
Mallorca Zeitung
reports, the meteorologists even expect temperatures of 43 degrees for the Spanish holiday island.
Of course, this also increases the risk of forest fires.
On July 9th there were two smaller forest fires near Cala Ratjada, which the fire brigade quickly got under control.
Forest fire on the Italian-Slovenian border: A section of the motorway is closed
Update from July 19, 4:44 p.m .:
Because of a large forest fire on the Italian-Slovenian border, the authorities in Italy have blocked a section of the motorway and interrupted a train connection.
According to the civil defense in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the fire broke out on Tuesday near Monfalcone, an Adriatic town north of Trieste.
In the afternoon, the fire department reported that the fire had been brought under control.
Ansa reported that some residents had left their homes out of caution.
Fires in Spain and France: videos show the extent – man runs for his life
Update from July 19, 4:30 p.m .:
Videos from France and Spain show the extent of the fire in southern Europe.
In both countries, the flames have already destroyed several square meters of land.
Area destroyed by fire | |
France | around 17,000 hectares of forest |
Spain | at least 60,000 hectares of forest |
In Landiras, south of Bordeaux, the firefighters are at their breaking point.
Many sources of fire and rising wind make the work difficult, shows a video in the magazine
Spiegel
.
In the meantime, arson is also being investigated
(see update from July 19, 6:33 a.m.).
In Spain, a man ran for his life on Monday after being caught in the flames with his in a field.
Wildfires in Spain: Fires continue to rage in Zamora — 'worst emergency on record'
Update from July 19, 3:12 p.m.:
The fires that have been raging in Spain since Wednesday last week have destroyed at least 60,000 hectares of forest in seven days.
The state television broadcaster
RTVE
reported on Tuesday.
This corresponds to around 80 percent of the area of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
"In terms of fire, this is the worst emergency on record," civil defense director Leonardo Marcos told Cadena Ser radio.
Among other things, "one of the largest known heat waves" contributes to this, which is due to man-made climate change.
In Zamora alone, two fires have already razed 30,000 hectares of forest to the ground.
There have already been two fatalities - a 62-year-old firefighter and a 69-year-old shepherd - and at least 15 injured.
Scores of homes were destroyed in Zamora, Ávila and across Spain, and in Zamora alone, thousands of animals died, regional authorities said.
"Zamora becomes hell," headlined the digital
newspaper Zamora News
.
The video from the train also comes from Zamora
(see update at 1:28 p.m.).
Forest fire in Spain: fire stops train – passenger describes “short hell situation”
Update July 19, 1:28 p.m .:
A video from a train from Madrid to Ferrol in Galicia shows frightening footage of the flames.
The train on which the video was made was forced to stop because of the fire.
As one passenger describes, the wind shifted and brought the fires closer to the train.
The recordings show the flames just before the train windows.
“Some of the sparks suddenly started forming new fires and they got closer.
Then it got scary,” the passenger describes the situation.
The people on the train got up and started to get nervous.
After a few minutes, the train was able to continue its journey and emerged from the flames unscathed.
"Then we were out of this brief hellish situation," said the passenger.
The whole video shows
ntv
.
In Spain, 22 fires were still active on Monday, according to civil defense.
The weather service
Aemet
forecast that the heat wave will end on Tuesday.
Forest fire in France: Fires continue to spread along the Atlantic coast
Update from July 19, 12:05 p.m .:
The heat wave in France is shifting to the east
(see update at 9:17 a.m.)
.
The forest fires have continued to spread on the French Atlantic coast.
Within a week they burned 19,300 hectares of land south of Bordeaux, as the prefecture responsible for the Gironde announced on Tuesday morning.
This corresponds to a little more than the entire urban area of Braunschweig.
The situation will remain unfavorable on Tuesday.
Strong winds had repeatedly made it difficult for the emergency services to contain the fires on dry ground.
According to the prefecture, Tuesday night was very difficult.
A retirement home near Teste-de-Buch was cleared.
Since the start of the severe forest fires in Teste-de-Buch and Landiras a week ago, more than 34,000 people have had to leave their homes as a precaution.
A zoo in the area was also partially cleared and about 370 animals were housed in another zoo.
Fires in Italy: evacuations in Tuscany - helicopters and fire-fighting planes in action
Update from July 19, 10:35 a.m .:
The Italian fire brigade has brought several residents to safety because of a large forest fire in Tuscany.
The fire broke out on Monday evening in the municipality of Massarosa north of Pisa, the fire brigade announced on Tuesday.
According to the Tuscan civil protection, the flames continued to be driven by winds from the north-east overnight, so that they also threatened residential buildings.
Around 30 people were evacuated from them.
In the meantime, the authorities have repeatedly blocked a traffic bridge that connects Lucca and Viareggio.
Three helicopters and two firefighting aircraft support the twelve firefighting units on the ground.
For weeks, persistent drought in Italy and wind have repeatedly ensured that fires spread quickly.
Heat waves in Greece: Winds bring "dream weather" around 30 degrees - then comes the heat
Update from July 19, 10:30 a.m .:
While the fire in Crete destroys numerous olive trees and the farmers’ livelihoods, the weather around the capital on Tuesday is relatively mild with temperatures around 30 degrees.
The reason for this is the rising winds.
In the capital Athens, which is plagued by heat waves, the weather agency predicted temperatures of around 29 degrees.
The maximum temperature around noon was predicted for the holiday island of Rhodes with 32 degrees.
This "dream weather", as one meteorologist called it on state radio, is the result of strong winds blowing in and around the Aegean Sea.
It should last until next Friday.
After that, the thermometer should show values around 40 degrees.
This heat will not last long, it said.
"The heat that prevails in Western Europe will probably not reach us in full force," added the meteorologist.
Update from July 19, 10 a.m.:
There is also a risk of fire in Greece due to the heat, drought and strong winds.
South of the port city of Rethymno on Crete, severe fires have destroyed large areas of agricultural land.
The mayor of the region, Giannis Tatarakis, told the Greek news channel
Real FM on Tuesday.
So far, more than 1850 hectares of agricultural land have been burned.
“These are mainly olive trees.
Many people have no income at all,” said the mayor.
The fire brigade contained the fire with fire-fighting helicopters, fire-fighting planes and hundreds of firefighters and volunteers.
It broke out on Friday, state radio reported.
Forest fires in France: heat wave shifts to the east of the country
Update from July 19, 9:17 a.m .:
The heat wave in France is expected to subside somewhat in the west of the country and let residents on the Atlantic coast breathe a sigh of relief.
The French weather service Météo-France lifted the highest heat warning level for 15 departments on the Atlantic coast on Tuesday.
However, the second highest warning level still applied to 73 of the 101 departments in France.
In the east of the country it should be up to 40 degrees hot.
Overview of the situation in France:
Firefighters battle two major fires near Bordeaux
1700 firefighters on duty
Around 17,000 hectares of forest have already been destroyed
Around 16,000 people evacuated on Monday in affected areas
Forest fires in Spain: firefighter dies, body of a shepherd also discovered
Update from July 18, 5:40 p.m
.: Critical situation due to forest fires in France: According to meteorologists, Monday could be one of the hottest days in the country's history.
Heat and wind also fueled the forest fires that had been raging for days.
Of particular concern was a region south of Bordeaux on the Bassin d'Arcachon, where 15,000 hectares of forest have already burned down.
On Monday, another 8,000 people had to be brought to safety here.
And there are fatalities from the forest fires: In northwestern Spain, not only a firefighter died fighting a forest fire that broke out in the municipality of Losacio on Sunday evening.
The body of a shepherd was later discovered in the burned area.
Spain and Portugal: Forest fires continue to rage despite falling temperatures
Update from July 18, 2:00 p.m .:
Despite falling temperatures, it is still burning in many places in Spain and Portugal.
In Spain, 22 fires were still active on Monday, according to civil defense.
The regions of Extremadura in the west, Galicia in the north-west, Castile and León in the center and Catalonia in the north-east of the country were particularly affected.
A second person died near the town of Escober de Tábara in the province of Zamora.
A 69-year-old shepherd was found dead, local authorities said on Monday.
In the neighboring municipality of Losacio, a firefighter had died trying to extinguish the flames.
The fire in Pont de Vilomara, only about 50 kilometers north of the Catalan metropolis of Barcelona, is a cause of great concern on Monday.
There, the flames that broke out on Sunday destroyed 1,700 hectares of forest after less than 24 hours.
The fire also affected numerous houses.
High temperatures in southern Europe: Man dies of heat stroke
Update from July 18, 10:32 a.m .:
The heat with its numerous forest fires in southern Europe continues to claim human lives.
A firefighter died in a forest fire near Losacio in north-west Spain.
A man has died of heat stroke on a street near Madrid.
According to the emergency services, the 50-year-old was walking down the street in Torrejón de Ardoz on Sunday when he collapsed.
Paramedics could no longer help him, his body temperature had risen to 40 degrees.
A doctor explains here what you should pay attention to at these temperatures.
Forest fires in France: 16,000 people have to flee
First report
: Munich - Germany has so far been spared the sweltering heat that has settled in southern Europe.
But now the Federal Republic has to adjust to it.
It is expected to remain hot in large parts of southern Europe, with the corresponding consequences.
France has called on citizens to be extra cautious given the expected rise in temperature.
The weather service Météo France imposed the highest red warning level for almost the entire French Atlantic coast and other western areas until Monday afternoon. Temperature records are almost certainly to be broken here.
Facing the persistent dry heat and fierce winds, firefighters continue their fight south of Bordeaux to battle two major wildfires.
The situation worsened on Sunday afternoon.
The fire at Teste-de-Buch reached the sea and blazed south from there.
Changing winds caused the forest fire at Landiras to grow.
So far, almost 13,000 hectares of land in the area have been burned.
More than 16,000 people had to leave their homes for safety.
Forest fires in Italy: Sicily and Sardinia raise warning levels
In addition to forest fires that flare up again and again, Italy is suffering from the lack of rain.
This can also be seen on Lake Garda.
The farmers' association Coldiretti warned on Sunday of crop losses of up to 70 percent in some areas.
In Sicily and Sardinia, the authorities again raised the forest fire warning levels in some parts of the islands.
In Sicily, the highest level three already applies locally.
Forest fires in Spain and Portugal: Falling temperatures should bring relaxation
About 30 forest fires were still active in Spain on Sunday evening.
The fires have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares in the past few days, as reported by the state television broadcaster RTVE, citing the various regional authorities.
In Portugal, around a thousand emergency services were fighting 16 active forest fires on Sunday evening.
According to the nature conservation agency ICNF, the flames in Portugal destroyed around 30,000 hectares of forest in around a week.
In both countries, meanwhile, the announced falling temperatures give reason for hope.
In Portugal, the government therefore did not want to extend the third-highest state of emergency, which expired on Monday, after a week.
In Spain, the heat wave will end between Monday and Tuesday, the national weather service Aemet said.
Risk of forest fires in Greece: Risk rated as "very high".
The Greek fire brigade continues to assess the risk of forest fires in many parts of the country as "very high".
On Monday, the Attica region with the capital Athens as well as the islands of Euboea, Crete, Lesbos and Samos and the north-east of the Peloponnese peninsula were particularly affected.
Above all, the sometimes strong winds that blow in the Aegean Sea cause difficulties.
They can quickly reignite and fuel a nearly smothered fire.
Heat in Croatia: Authorities restrict water consumption on the Istrian peninsula
Restrictions on water consumption came into force on Monday on the Croatian peninsula of Istria, which is popular with holidaymakers.
Drinkable tap water may no longer be used for washing vehicles, cleaning streets, watering green spaces or showering on beaches and in swimming pools.
The only exception is the cleaning of markets and fish markets.
The provincial government of Istria justified the measure with the persistent drought and with meteorological forecasts, according to which no precipitation is to be expected in the foreseeable future.
