Wildfires continued to sweep across swathes of Italy, France and Spain on Thursday, forcing thousands to flee blazes fanned by scorching temperatures and strong winds.
Three firefighters have been killed fighting the flames as southern Europe endures another spell of severe heat, with temperatures topping 40C in some areas.
Although the summer of 2026 is only halfway through, it already ranks as the second largest EU area burned by wildfires over the last 20 years, according to European satellite data from the Effis system analysed by AFP.
“We saw a big cloud of black smoke spread across the sky in the middle of the afternoon,” said Julie Leonard, a Bordeaux resident in her thirties who had to seek shelter from a major fire around Le Porge in south-west France.
In Sicily, around 6,000 firefighters, forest guards and civil protection officials battled dozens of fires raging for days across the Italian Mediterranean island despite the deployment of water-bombing aircraft.
A firefighter died after falling ill while battling the flames, the interior minister said.
READ ALSO: Firefighter dead and residents evacuated as wildfires ravage Sicily
A spokesperson for Italy’s Civil Protection Agency told AFP the situation in Sicily was “serious” and that the fires were “being fuelled by very high temperatures and very dry soil”.
More than 160 fires have also been recorded in the neighbouring Calabria region, with the local civil protection chief blaming arsonists who allegedly tied rags soaked in flammable liquid to the tails of stray cats to spread the flames.
In France, more than 10,000 tourists evacuated camping sites and other holiday accommodation near Bordeaux in the southwest on Thursday, as a wildfire ravaged a seaside pine forest.
The blaze in Le Porge had ripped through 2,400 hectares (5,900 acres) — an area twice the size of London’s Heathrow airport — since Wednesday, officials said.
No homes had been destroyed and no casualties reported, but two firefighters died on Tuesday tackling another blaze near Bordeaux airport.
“We’re dealing with a very dense stand of closely packed pines,” firefighter Captain Wilfried Schneider told AFP, describing a fire of “rare” intensity.
READ ALSO: Fires in southwest France force 12,000 to evacuate
‘No chance’
“If I’d been brave, I would have stayed in my cabin, but it was too hot. I got in my car and left,” said Bernard Roche, 75, who has lived in the area for 35 years.
Le Porge Mayor Martial Zaninetti said the fire appeared to have been sparked by a brush-clearing machine, though police were still investigating the cause.
Skies over Le Porge turned orange as smoke rose from charred and still-crackling pine trees, AFP journalists reported, while helicopters made repeated runs over evacuated neighbourhoods.
Fires in 2022 damaged 30,000 hectares of the same forest, forcing some 50,000 people to be evacuated.
Fires are breaking out faster because climate change, caused by the burning of oil, coal and gas, is making a European drought more severe, climatologists from the World Weather Attribution group said in a study published on Thursday.
Across the border in Spain, progress against a major wildfire south of Madrid allowed most residents to return, emergency services said Thursday.
The blaze, which broke out Wednesday near the city of Toledo, prompted authorities to evacuate several districts as flames advanced towards homes. Villagers in El Encinar del Alberche were still being urged to stay away.
Firefighters described overnight efforts as “very positive”, although the blaze had not yet been stabilised and several roads remained closed.
But hundreds of firefighters were still battling a much larger wildfire in Guadalajara province, north of Madrid, which has burnt about 32,000 hectares since it started last Thursday.
“Climate change is what kills, what destroys our villages and our natural and cultural heritage,” civil protection chief Virginia Barcones told Spanish radio, warning some fires become so intense that, despite the deployment of aircraft and ground crews, firefighters stand “no chance”.
Barcones said conditions at the Guadalajara blaze were improving but warned of strong winds and extreme heat later on Thursday.
Madrid emergency services also warned of an “extreme” wildfire risk as Spain endured the final day of a heatwave. Spain’s weather agency AEMET said temperatures were expected to ease this weekend before likely rising again.
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