<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/06/wildfires-southern-europe-evacuations-tour-de-france-portugal-spain-greece-heatwave>
"Wildfires raging across southern Europe have forced thousands to flee their
homes and prompted officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de
France, amid warnings of “powder keg” conditions after a record-breaking early
summer heatwave.
Hundreds of firefighters are tackling blazes that have burned through almost
20,000 hectares (49,500 acres) in Portugal, Spain, France and Greece. Strong
winds are forecast to fan the flames and temperatures are expected to rise
again this week.
In the remote foothills of the French Pyrenees near the Spanish border, 700
firefighters were struggling to contain an out-of-control wildfire that has
scorched 5,000 hectares and prompted the evacuation of more than 10,000
people.
“This morning, conditions are deteriorating again,” said the French interior
minister, Laurent Nuñez, on Monday, adding that with wildfires now blazing in
five departments, twice as much land had burned in France so far this season
compared with the same time last year.
The EU said on Monday it was sending four waterbombing aircraft to France from
Cyprus and Sweden to help firefighters around the city of Perpignan. “Europe
stands with France,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen,
posted.
The Pyrenees fire has nearly tripled in size since Sunday. “It came within 300
metres [984ft] of the houses. We were shocked by how fast it spread, it was
staggering – bordering on panic,” Patrice, from the village of Trévillach, told
Agence France-Presse.
The blazes follow a premature May heatwave and another in June that shattered
temperature records across western Europe, caused thousands of excess deaths
and left vast areas of land particularly vulnerable to wildfires."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
