Wildfires rage as Spain, Greece and Portugal ‘toxic smoke’ warnings issued | World | News

Hundreds of firefighters are battling wildfires in Portugal, Greece and Spain this Sunday afternoon, while Spain and Italy are sending reinforcements to Portugal to help with the huge fire that has been burning for more than three days.

Authorities have called on residents in some parts of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, to stay in their homes and close their windows and doors due to toxic smoke from a recycling facility that burned down due to a forest fire.

Another large forest fire broke out west of the Greek capital Athens on Sunday afternoon.

The fire brigade said 210 firefighters, supported by volunteers, specialist teams and 29 aircraft, including water-dropping planes and helicopters, were deployed to fight the blaze burning in the pine forest in the Mandra district.

Authorities were racing to contain the fire before nightfall when planes could no longer carry out firefighting operations.

More than 1,200 firefighters, supported by nearly 400 vehicles and 15 aircraft, tried to extinguish the fire in the Vouzela region in central Portugal on Thursday, according to the Civil Protection authority.

The wildfire had burned 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) by Sunday, according to information from the European Union’s Copernicus satellite mapping agency.

EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid said Spain sent 120 firefighters and 45 vehicles as reinforcements to Portugal on Friday, while three firefighting planes from Italy and Spain were also sent to help.

By Sunday afternoon the fire appeared to have subsided somewhat; Portuguese media quoted officials as saying there were no longer major active fronts but some hotspots remained.

The forest fire, which has been burning since Friday in Spain’s northeastern Girona region, has burned about 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres) of land, EFE news agency said.

The perimeter of the fire is 40 kilometers (25 miles) and firefighters may not be able to bring it under control on Sunday, Eduard Martinez, head of operations of the Catalan Fire Brigade, told EFE.

On the other side of southern Europe, in Greece, a fire broke out at a recycling facility near the Thessaloniki suburb of Oraiokastro on Saturday evening, triggering evacuation warnings for three suburbs and a facility housing 157 disabled people.

The fire department said strong winds fanned the flames and about 160 firefighters were deployed to battle the flames throughout the night until water-dropping planes took off at dawn.

Oraiokastro mayor Pandelis Tsakiris said in a statement to Greece’s state broadcaster ERT that many workplaces and houses were damaged, but a clearer picture will emerge after the authorities make a full assessment.

The fire service said a 76-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of negligently starting the fire by setting fire to roadside vegetation with his vehicle, creating sparks.

He was to appear before the prosecutor on Sunday.

The fire came just days after a 12-year-old boy and his father died in another nearby wildfire.

About 85% of forest fires in Greece are caused by negligence, including the use of agricultural machinery, discarded cigarettes and sparks from outdoor barbecuing, fire department spokesman Ioannis Artopoios told ERT TV on Sunday.

“This means a lot of it could have been prevented,” he said.

Greece suffers from frequent, often devastating, forest fires during the hot, dry summer months.

More than 100 people died in a fire east of Athens in 2018, while the massive fire that destroyed a remote nature reserve in north-east Greece in 2023 was the largest forest fire recorded in the EU.

The country is increasingly turning to technology to combat the fire threat made worse by climate change.

It is integrating an array of four satellites launched into low orbit in May to monitor the fires.

So far this summer, Greece has escaped the heatwaves that have scorched much of Western Europe in recent weeks.

But dozens of fires were still seen across the country, both on the mainland and on the country’s islands.