A Spanish Wildfire Forces Evacuations as Europe’s Heat Rebuilds
Firefighters in north-eastern Spain battled a wildfire near Ores in Aragon that spread past 12,000 hectares overnight, forcing more than a thousand people to evacuate, with some 30 aircraft and 300 military personnel deployed. Further fires burned near Madrid and in Guadalajara, and Athens was on high alert. Though the heatwave that set the continent alight is receding — the World Health Organization has linked the recent spell to around 10,000 excess deaths — forecasters warn temperatures will rebuild from Saturday, with 42 to 44C possible in southern Spain next week.
A fire the size of a large city, driven by heat and drought, is the visible edge of a summer that has turned much of southern Europe into tinder, and the deployment of the army alongside the fire services is a measure of how far these blazes now outstrip ordinary resources. The WHO’s estimate of around 10,000 excess deaths from the recent heat is the less visible toll, the quiet mortality that accumulates in homes and hospitals while the cameras point at the flames. That the heat is forecast to rebuild within days, with temperatures approaching the mid-40s in parts of Spain, shows this is not a single event but a pattern settling over European summers, straining systems built for a cooler climate. For the many Britons holidaying in Spain, Greece and Italy this month, the fires and the heat are a direct concern. Watch the containment of the Spanish fires, the death tolls once the smoke clears, and how high the next surge of heat climbs.