Wildfire rages near Paris as heatwave scorches Europe
By Benoit Tessier
NOISY-SUR-ECOLE, France, July 13 (Reuters) – The death toll from one of Spain’s deadliest forest fires rose to 13 as a relentless heatwave scorched much of Western Europe as a wildfire ripped through a historic forest near Paris on Monday, prompting highways to be closed and water bomb-dropping planes to take action.
The region is suffering a third heat wave of the summer, with dry vegetation and high temperatures fueling fires from the Iberian Peninsula to France. Most scientists say the fires are caused by climate change.
France deployed hundreds of firefighters to battle a fast-moving blaze along a highway near Fontainebleau, home to one of France’s best-known royal palaces that once served as a hunting lodge and autumnal residence for past monarchs.
The death toll from last week’s devastating forest fire in Spain’s southern Almeria province has reached 13 after a 93-year-old British woman died from burns, according to officials. According to authorities, 10 people were still missing as of Monday.
Scientists monitoring excess mortality (more people dying than usual) said more deaths than usual were recorded during the heatwave that devastated Europe and Britain at the end of June.
MINISTER: FIRE IN FRANCE IS SUSPICIOUS
Just 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) from Paris, the Fontainebleau bushfire caused the closure of the A6 motorway connecting Paris with Lyon and the south. Small-scale fires in the region also disrupted high-speed train services.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the circumstances of the fire were suspicious.
“There were about ten points where the fire started within a 1000 meter radius, which suggests it may have been started deliberately,” he said.
Nearly 26 million people in France were under a red heatwave warning on Monday, including the Paris region. Forecasters say the heatwave is expected to continue until mid-week.
Meteorologists say a new heat wave expected to last at least a week will hit neighboring Italy, bringing high humidity and tropical nights. Thermometers in Sardinia’s interior could reach 42-43 degrees Celsius (108-109 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
HEAT BREAKER
The current heat crisis is the third heat wave of the year, following multiple daily record-breaking scorching temperatures in late May and then in late June.
The extreme weather conditions affecting the region have damaged crops, affected the energy production of nuclear power plants and increased the costs of transporting cargo along the Rhine river in Germany, where low water levels prevent cargo ships from sailing fully loaded.
In Italy, farmers in the Emilia-Romagna region are having to use more resources to ensure proper livestock management and maintain the continuous production of dairy products such as Parmesan cheese.
MORE DEATHS ARE SELECTED FROM HEAT
European countries reported nearly 10,650 excess deaths during the record-breaking heatwave that gripped the west of the continent in late June, according to official data.
A separate scientific study published in the United Kingdom on Monday estimated that 2,700 people died from heat-related causes during the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales alone.
According to findings from Imperial College London, the UK Met Office and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 42 percent of these deaths were caused by the extra heat brought on by global warming.
Last week, the World Health Organization warned that Europe could face “deadlier weeks ahead” due to new heat waves over the Atlantic.
EuroMOMO, a network supported by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, said more than 9,000 of the excess deaths recorded in Europe were among people aged 65 and over.
Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institute, which hosts EuroMOMO, told Reuters the figures were quite unusual.
“It is difficult to explain these high death rates by anything other than extreme heat,” Vestergaard said. he said.
(Reporting by Benoit Tessier and Sudip-Kar-Gupta in Paris, Giselda Vagnoni in Rome, Kate Abnett in Brussels, Sergio Leon and Aislinn Laing in Madrid; Writing by Richard Lough and Michele Kambas; editing by Andrei Khalip)
