Much of Europe is sweltering under a heatwave with temps up in the mid-40 degrees Celsius while wildfires are raging across Portugal, Spain, France and Croatia, fuelling further travel disruptions this summer season and threatening livelihoods.
In Portugal’s central Leiria district, footage from Wednesday showed smoke darkening the sky and billowing across a highway, while flames licked around the roofs of houses in one small village.
The most concerning blaze was near the town of Pombal, where aircraft and helicopters dropped water on flames that were tearing down a hillside lined with highly flammable pine and eucalyptus trees.
Across the border in western Spain, a fire that started in the Extremadura region on Tuesday swept into Salamanca province in the region of Castile and Leon.
Regional authorities said more than 4,000 hectares of land had been burned and Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET expected the heatwave to reach its peak yesterday with temperatures likely to exceed 44°C in large parts of southern Spain.
On Croatia’s Adriatic Coast, three major wildfires are around Zadar and Sibenik, while Gironde in southwestern France dealt with two wildfires that started on Tuesday.
The biggest of the two Gironde fires was around the town of Landiras, south of Bordeaux, where roads have been closed.
The other blaze was along the Atlantic Coast, close to the tallest dune in Europe, ‘Dune du Pilat’, in the Arcachon Bay area, above which heavy clouds of dark smoke were seen rising into the sky.
A fire on Turkey’s southwestern Datca peninsula had been brought under control on Thursday.
Scientists blame human-caused climate change for the increased frequency of extreme weather such as heatwaves, which have also hit parts of China and the United States in recent days.
Via AAP