Three firefighters killed on Crete and in mainland Greece as Europe battles wildfires | Wildfires

Three Greek firefighters have died fighting fires on the island of Crete and in the south of the mainland, the Greek fire service said, as extreme heat hampered efforts to control fires sweeping across southern Europe.

Raging fires stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Levant and from the Scottish Highlands to southern Spain have alarmed experts as many of the fires are out of control and burning close to towns and cities.

Temperatures made worse by the climate crisis reached 38C on Wednesday in Bordeaux, France, where firefighters prevented a massive blaze in nearby pine forests from reaching the suburbs, and 37C in Madrid, the site of Spain’s largest forest fire on record, in the west. According to Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, it has been “technically stabilized”.

Dozens of ground crews managed to bring the Madrid fire under control overnight, emergency services in the region said on Wednesday morning, but a separate fire was still out of control near València, where temperatures will peak at a cooler 32 degrees.

In televised comments from the Navalcarnero command center on Wednesday morning, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said the situation near the capital was improving but stressed that for the first time in Spanish history, a forest fire had been upgraded to “operational level 3” and the national government had taken over the disaster response.

“I believe that the next 12 hours will be very important,” he said. “They will be decisive in consolidating the work done by the national civil protection system.”

The fourth heat wave of Western Europe’s scorching summer, accompanied by strong winds, has put firefighters on alert; Firefighters warned that this made fires harder to extinguish and increased the risk of fires restarting in areas that had been stabilized. New fires also prompted evacuations in Greece and Türkiye, where authorities said two firefighters “heroically fell in the line of duty” while trying to extinguish the blaze in Crete.

French authorities took advantage of a quiet night on Tuesday that allowed the flare-ups to be quickly extinguished but warned of “adverse” developing weather conditions that could hamper progress. Gironde province said 126 firefighters had been injured since the fire started but the total burned area remained steady at 42,000 hectares (104,000 acres) as of Wednesday morning.

European Forest Fire Information System data shows that forest fires have burned a record-breaking area in France, while France and Spain experienced record numbers of fires for this time of year. More than 330,000 people in Southern Europe were forced to flee their homes and hotels.

Authorities began lifting evacuation orders on Tuesday, as the fires were brought under control and tens of thousands of people living in towns near Bordeaux, Madrid and València were allowed to return to their homes. Some returned to find burnt buildings and burnt belongings.

“He has no money, he has no papers, he has no house,” 74-year-old retiree José Fernández told AFP after returning to the ruins of his home in Pelayos de la Presa in the Madrid Region. “This place is completely ruined.”

Europe’s bushfire season is getting hotter and longer as carbon pollution warms the continent at twice the global average. Repeated heat waves this year have dried out vegetation and turned forests and shrubs into tinder boxes; This alarmed EU officials, who said forest fires could still rage in November.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen thanked firefighters for their “courage and dedication” on Wednesday.

“As fires continue to rage in France and Spain, European solidarity knows no bounds,” he said in a social media post. “Romania and Greece decided to expand their missions by continuing their support to the affected areas. Starting on Saturday, Poland will also join this fight.”

Earlier this week, the European Commission announced that it sent 7 planes and 4 helicopters to France from distant countries such as Sweden and Turkey, and in Spain, it mobilized 6 planes from Greece, Italy and Türkiye, as well as 134 personnel and 41 vehicles from Portugal. A Super Puma helicopter from Serbia was expected to arrive in Madrid on Wednesday with 40 personnel and 18 vehicles following shortly after, according to the Spanish interior ministry.

The European Union’s crisis management team said on Wednesday that tough weeks ahead were ahead amid fears of new fires breaking out in Italy and Greece in the summer.

Maria Zuber, a senior official at the EU’s emergency response coordination center (ERCC) in Brussels, which coordinates the dispatch of firefighting planes, equipment and crews to countries seeking assistance, said the next few days would be “very difficult” for France and “now we see it going to Greece.”

Moisés Galán Santano, wildfire expert at ERCC, said more needs to be done to prevent wildfires and this will be a task that will take many years. “ [emergency] The answer is not just the answer. This is the final answer. But that’s not the whole answer. “We must focus on prevention.”

Earlier this year, a policy paper prepared by the European Commission laid out how countries could better prevent and recover from wildfires, which are expected to become larger and more damaging across the continent. It has promoted measures such as more extensive grazing, restoration of wetlands, rivers and floodplains, better data on wildfires and public awareness of risky behavior and safe evacuation.

Western Europe’s scorching summer is deadly, costly and made worse by fossil fuel pollution, scientists say. Rapid analysis revealed that a heatwave in June would be “almost impossible” in a climate-unstable world, while the recent level of soil dryness in Western Europe – a driver of larger fires – has made it five times more likely. Heatwaves are estimated to have killed at least 10,000 people and cost grain farmers €2 billion.

Vula Tsetsi, co-chair of the European Green Party, called on European institutions to take action on Wednesday, noting that the European Commission has not yet published the heating and cooling plan expected in April.

“Climate-induced heat waves and wildfires are already claiming lives, destroying homes and destroying forests at a record pace,” he said. “There is a widening gap between the extent of European heatwaves (hitting literally every EU country) and Europe’s lack of decisive action.”