Firefighters from several European countries are arriving in France today to help fight several forest fires raging amid back-to-back heat waves and historic drought, including a giant front in the country’s southwest.
A total of 361 firefighters from European countries are on their way to south-west France to support their 1,100 French colleagues who are battling day and night to contain the huge fire in Llandira, which already charred 140,000 hectares in July.
Four aircraft of the European Union’s firefighting fleet have been sent to France from Greece and Sweden, the European Commission announced yesterday. Poland announced yesterday that it is sending 146 firefighters to help in the south. They will be deployed from noon, according to the French presidency.
“Germany, Greece, Poland and, within the next few hours, Romania and Austria: our partners are helping France deal with the fires,” Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter, thanking them.
“As in July, Italy remains in solidarity with France. Several Canadians are arriving to support the French and European firefighters” deployed in the territory, he added a few hours later.
Fires are raging in the Gironde (southwest), Girard (east), Drôme, Aveyron and Loser (southeast), not counting the countless smaller outbreaks from north to south.
In a large perimeter around Austen (Gironde), the flames charred in two days 74,000 hectares of forest area and forced 10,000 people to leave their homes, some for the second time in a month.
65 German firefighters with 24 vehicles arrived yesterday Thursday at noon in the zone where the sky seems to have been covered by a grayish veil. They were going to attempt at daybreak.
“We are all firefighters, we understand the situation. This will be a really tough battle,” given the “duration and scope” of the fires, said Simon Fritz, a professional firefighter from Bonn.
In several abandoned homes, one could see messages of gratitude from residents — “thanks for our homes,” or “thanks, firefighters.”
More than 400,000 hectares have burned in France this year according to the government, or 500,000 according to European satellite data. In any case, this is an area many times the annual average of the last fifteen years, and summer is not even over yet.
Rainfall is not expected before tomorrow Sunday.
Spain and Portugal are also experiencing massive fires this summer. More than 1,500 firefighters were fighting yesterday Thursday to limit a fire that has been sweeping the Serra de Estrella park in Portuguese territory for the past few days, and has already destroyed some 100,000 hectares, according to European data.
One of the scientifically proven consequences of climate change is that heat waves are multiplying, lengthening and intensifying. Scientists estimate that in Europe, deaths due to heat stress may double or even triple over the course of the century due to global warming.
The current heat wave in France began on July 31 and is the third of the year, following those who experienced it in late June and mid-July.
July was the driest month in the country since March 1961.
SOURCE: APE-ME
Source: Capital
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