Thousands have been forced to evacuate in some areas as wildfires burn in parts of Europe. Spectators have also been banned from lining the Tour de France route ahead of the third stage of the iconic race. Authorities say record-breaking heat waves and scant rainfall have turned forests and fields into tinderboxes, with forecasters warning that more extreme conditions are on the way.
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TRANSCRIPT
Massive wildfires are devastating southern parts of Europe.
The fires have already burnt through more than 42,000 acres of land across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece, an area more than twice the size of Manhattan in the US.
In Portugal, resident Accuncao Almeida says people are struggling.
“The situation we are living right now is particularly hard. The fire, the flames and the smoke are making conditions unbearable. Beyond the fear we all have, of course, of waking up and finding our homes in flames, there are several houses very close by. Mine is a little farther away, but it is surrounded by forest. Since the early hours of Thursday we have been living a very difficult situation.”
Local authorities say record-breaking heat waves and scant rainfall have turned forests and fields into tinderboxes, with forecasters warning that more extreme conditions are on the way.
A Spanish military unit is in Portugal to assist firefighting efforts, with more than 32,000 acres of forest and scrub land devastated in the north of the country.
Ms Almeida says members of the community are doing what they can to help out.
“As you can imagine, the whole community is nervous and waiting for the situation to be resolved. The firefighters have been an enormous help. We came here to hand out drinks to the firefighters, for those who wanted them, because after so many hours working here, they obviously need to stay hydrated. We need strength to keep up our fight."
Elsewhere, major fires have also burnt through vineyards and forests on the Croatian island of Hvar and at Tale in Albania.
In Greece, flames from a forest fire have torn through two factories in the north.
Firefighters have been using water dropping planes to battle the blazes in an agricultural and forested area near Oreokastro, north of Thessaloniki.
Authorities have been forced to evacuate the surrounding area, among them local Anastasios Chortokonidis.
“Behind us there was a factory, a furniture manufacturing factory, which has been completely destroyed. There is nothing left. And still, as you can see, since six o’clock in the morning, the airplanes and the helicopters are continuously dropping water to put out the fire at the recycling facility”.
Regions across Portugal, Spain and southern France have stepped up heat warnings for the coming days, with temperatures above 40 degrees [[C]] anticipated for some areas.
In France, officials have announced the third stage of the Tour de France cycling race through the Pyrenees will take place without spectators who normally line the routes of the competition.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme says this was the only sensible option.
“I am thinking first, like the prefect of the people who are suffering at this moment, because that is the most important thing, it is the safeguarding of populations and landscapes. And then I am also thinking obviously of the people of Les Angles who had been preparing to host the Tour for a year, and then of the fans of the Tour de France who wanted to enjoy a beautiful stage. But I also believe that they will understand and that they will be sufficiently civic-minded to also protect the area. An exceptional situation requires an exceptional response from the organisation: the organisations of road cycling races must constantly adapt, and those of the Tour de France are no exception."
The blazes have come shortly after a heatwave in June, one of Europe's worst, during which thousands of excess deaths were registered and which the World Weather Attribution group of scientists have said would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change.
With the mercury set to rise again in the coming days, authorities have expressed alarm that the annual summer wildfire season had started a month early.
