France and Spain fight wildfires as Europe swelters

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Heatwaves across parts of Europe fuelled ferocious wildfires in Spain and France&comma; which evacuated thousands of people and scrambled water-bombing planes and firefighters to battle flames in tinder-dry forests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two people were killed in the blazes in Spain that its prime minister linked to global warming&comma; saying&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Climate change kills&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That toll comes on top of the hundreds of heat-related deaths reported in the Iberian peninsula&comma; as high temperatures have gripped the continent in recent days and triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some areas&comma; including northern Italy&comma; are also experiencing extended droughts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In France&comma; heat records were broken and swirling hot winds complicated firefighting in the country’s south-west&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The fire is literally exploding&comma;” said Marc Vermeulen&comma; the regional fire service chief who described tree trunks shattering as flames consumed them&comma; sending burning embers into the air and further spreading the blazes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We’re facing extreme and exceptional circumstances&comma;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Authorities evacuated more towns&comma; moving another 14&comma;900 people from areas that could find themselves in the path of the fires and choking smoke&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In all&comma; more than 31&comma;000 people have been forced from their homes and summer vacation spots in the Gironde region since the wildfires began July 12&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Three additional planes were sent to join six others fighting the fires&comma; scooping up seawater and making repeated runs through dense clouds of smoke&comma; the Interior Ministry said on Sunday night&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than 200 reinforcements headed to join the 1&comma;500 firefighters trying to contain the blazes in the Gironde&comma; where flames neared prized vineyards and billowed smoke across the Arcachon maritime basin famed for its oysters and beaches&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Spain&comma; meanwhile&comma; reported a second fatality in two days in its own blazes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The body of a 69-year-old sheep farmer was found on Monday in the same hilly area where a 62-year-old firefighter died a day earlier when he was trapped by flames in the north-western Zamora province&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than 30 forest fires around Spain have forced the evacuation of thousands of people and blackened 220 square kilometres &lpar;85 square miles&rpar; of forest and scrub&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Passengers on a train through Zamora got a frightening&comma; close look at a blaze&comma; when their train halted in the countryside&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Video of the unscheduled — and unnerving — stop showed about a dozen passengers in a railcar becoming alarmed as they looked out of the windows at the flames encroaching on both sides of the track&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Climate scientists say heat waves are more intense&comma; more frequent and longer because of climate change — and coupled with droughts have made wildfires harder to fight&period; They say climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Climate change kills&comma;” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday during a visit to the Extremadura region&comma; the site of three major blazes&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It kills people&comma; it kills our ecosystems and biodiversity&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Teresa Ribera&comma; Spain’s minister for ecological transition&comma; described her country as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;literally under fire” as she attended talks on climate change in Berlin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She warned of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;terrifying prospects still for the days to come” — after more than 10 days of temperatures over 40C &lpar;104F&rpar;&comma; cooling only moderately at night&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At least 748 heat-related deaths have been reported in the heatwave in Spain and neighbouring Portugal&comma; where temperatures reached 47C &lpar;117F&rpar; earlier this month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The heatwave in Spain was forecast to ease on Tuesday&comma; but the respite will be brief as temperatures rise again on Wednesday&comma; especially in the dry western Extremadura region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>France’s often-temperate Brittany region sweltered with a record 39&period;3C &lpar;102&period;7F&rpar; degrees in the port of Brest&comma; surpassing a high of 35&period;1C that had stood since September 2003&comma; French weather service Meteo-France said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Balkans region expected the worst of the heat later this week&comma; but has already seen sporadic wildfires&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Early on Monday&comma; authorities in Slovenia said firefighters brought one fire under control&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Croatia sent a water-dropping plane there to help after struggling last week with its own wildfires along the Adriatic Sea&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A fire in Sibenik forced some people to evacuate their homes but was later extinguished&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Portugal&comma; much cooler weather on Monday helped fire crews make progress&period; More than 600 firefighters attended four major fires in northern Portugal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ecc9dace667">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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