Millions of people across Europe were sweltering in yet more extreme heat on Wednesday, as raging wildfires tore through the countryside, forcing thousands from their homes and blanketing parts of Italy, Greece and France in smoke.
After temperatures smashed records in the UK on Tuesday, the extreme heat is moving east across the continent, leaving a trail of destruction in many rural areas and exposing a lack of preparedness, even in some of Europe’s biggest cities.
Temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 38 degrees Celsius) are forecast in Germany, Hungary and Italy today or in the coming days.
The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) said 19 European countries were at “extreme danger” for wildfires on Wednesday, across an expanse stretching from Portugal and Spain in the south-west to Albania and Turkey in the south-east.
On the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens, firefighters are tackling vast blazes where wind is whipping up flames and smoke, and hampering containment efforts. At least 600 people have been evacuated, including from a children’s hospital, authorities said.
“Our top priority remains the safeguarding of human lives. But also that of vital public infrastructure as well as citizens’ properties,” Greek Fire Service spokesperson Ioannis Artopoios said, during a televised briefing in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Huge clouds of smoke remain visible in the city on Wednesday, despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters. Romanian fire crews have been drafted in to assist the operation.
Blazes are also being tackled in parts of Italy. Wildfires in Tuscany caused gas tanks to explode and forced evacuations overnight, according to the regional President Eugenio Giani. In Alsdorf, western Germany, three residents and two firefighters were injured in a blaze on Tuesday, and much of the country is primed for more fires as temperatures rise on Wednesday.
In France, aircraft continued to dump water over burning landscapes. Fires have been raging there for a week now, though they advanced “very little” on Tuesday night in the Gironde region, according to local authorities. Smoke swirled over the Brennilis nuclear power plant in Brittany on Wednesday morning.
There was some respite in the UK, where temperatures dipped from an all-time high of 40.3 C (104.5 F) on Tuesday back into the 20s. But some residential areas around London were left in ruins after fires broke out across parts of the capital, stretching the fire service to its limits.
“Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the second world war,” London’s mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News on Wednesday. London had no available fire engines at one point in the afternoon amid unprecedented demand, a senior fireman with the London Fire Brigade’s special rescue team told CNN.
