“It seems like the end of the world”: hundreds of evacuees due to forest fires in Europe

The scenes of forest fires in southern Europe are devastating. In towns in Spain and Portugal, two of the most affected nations, the wildfire is seen as an apocalypse.

“This seems like the end of the world (…) Everything was burning, if the houses did not burn it was because the people did not hesitate to defend them,” Portuguese citizen Adelino Rodrigues told local television.

But not all have managed to protect their properties. “The fire surrounded me in front and behind,” said Fernando Agostinho, who a few days before had finished remodeling his home near the city of Pombal. Now everything has been destroyed by the magnitude of the flames.

Portugal maintains this Friday, July 15, the red alert in five districts due to high temperatures and fires, especially in the center and north of the country, where there are at least 28 active deflagrations, against which more than 2,000 firefighters deployed on the ground are fighting.

However, the fire crews are overwhelmed by the force of the flames. The bulk of the explosions are concentrated in Leiria and Aveiro, in the center of the nation, and in Viana do Castelo and the Porto region, in the north.

Since last Sunday, July 10, the authorities declared a “state of contingency” and some 800 people have been evacuated from their homes, according to data from the Civil Protection Authority.

At least one person has died and 135 have suffered minor injuries. There is no official figure on the area burned since the current wave of fires began in the country a week ago.

Although the devastating scenario is recorded in the midst of an intense heat wave, which in this country has reached over 40 degrees Celsius, the commander of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, André Macedo Fernandes, assured that more than half of the sources of fire are caused by negligence such as agricultural cuts for land clearing or barbecues in forest areas.

The situation worsens when the fire is fueled by temperature, wind and drought.

Hell in Extremadura, Spain

Across the border, in western Spaina fire that started in Las Hurdes, Extremadura, last Tuesday spread to the province of Salamanca, in the region of Castilla y León, forcing the evacuation of several camps.

So far the flames in that place have consumed more than 4,000 hectares. And with the passing of hours and days, the evolution of the deflagration has become more complicated. A quick solution is uncertain due to the proliferation of other sources of fire in the vicinity.

The fire spread out of control and reached the Monfragüe National Park, also located in the community of Extremadura. The nature reserve has been on fire since noon on Thursday, July 14.

Given this scenario, residents of nearby areas received an evacuation order, while firefighters supported by three helicopters try to extinguish the fire.

“The problem is that, as we have said many times, there is no place to stop it. Not even the river is a guarantee, since it can easily jump over it. What a tough day awaits us,” Francisco Castañares, president of the association of friends of the park and forestry expert.

Climate records have been equaled or surpassed in many parts of Spain, with the thermometer marking, for the first time, 44.1 °C in the northwestern city of Ourense, in Galicia, a community with generally lower temperatures compared to the rest of the country.

In areas of Extremadura they reached 45 ° C on Thursday.

Cayetano Torres, spokesman for the Spanish meteorological office, Aemet, stated that although the heat wave, the second of the summer in Spain, was expected to end on Monday, July 18, it may not be the last of the year.

Regions of France, Greece and Croatia are also under fire

Hundreds more people were evacuated from their homes in southwestern France when the forest fires got out of control in the last hours.

Since Tuesday, more than 1,000 firefighters, supported by nine water bomber planes, have been battling two blazes fueled by scorching heat.

Authorities in the Gironde department, where the fires continue, described the situation as “adverse”.

One of the two fires in the region occurred around the city of Landiras, south of Bordeaux, where 4,200 hectares have been burned, roads have been closed and around 1,000 residents have been evacuated.

The other fire, which has already burned 3,100 hectares of forest, occurred along the Atlantic coast, near the “Dune du Pilat”, the highest sand dune in Europe, in the Arcachon Bay area, above which dense clouds of dark smoke were observed rising.

Some 6,000 inhabitants were evacuated from the surrounding camps last Wednesday, July 13, and another 4,000 were withdrawn on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, on the Adriatic coast of CroatiaFirefighting planes descended to drop water on burning forests and dozens of troops were deployed to help firefighters struggling to contain three major forest fires around Zadar and Sibenek.

Arndt Dreste, a 55-year-old man, who moved to the village of Raslina near Sibenik this year after selling his property in Germany, saw his assets wiped out.

“I bought this house in January … I am cut off from Germany and this is my life here,” he said, showing the charred walls of his home.

Thousands of people were also forced from their homes on the Datca peninsula in southwestern Turkeyfor a fire that started on Wednesday and has been strengthened by the winds, while threatening residential areas.

In Greece, firefighters struggle to extinguish fires in the capital’s Attica region and on the island of Crete. Local authorities have ordered the preventive evacuation of several towns.

Scientists point to man-made climate change as the cause of the increased frequency of extreme weather events, including heat waves, which have also affected parts of China and the United States in recent days.

With Reuters and local media