Southern France is battling for a third day its largest wildfire since 1949, while a once fast-moving blaze in a southern Spanish tourist resort is now under control.
The deadly fire in France erupted on Tuesday afternoon in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region near the Spanish border, destroying dozens of houses and scorching more than 16,000 hectares of forest.
At least one person died in the small village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, southeast of Toulouse, the Aude prefecture said.
Three people have been reported missing and two people including a firefighter are in critical condition.
In the first 12 hours of the fire, the blaze spread across 11,000 hectares of land, an area roughly equivalent to Paris. Now it has swept through an area one-and-a-half times bigger than Paris - France's biggest wildfire since 1949.
Thousands of firefighters were trying to tame the fire, which officials say is now advancing more slowly. Around 2,500 households in the area were without electricity yesterday. It has not yet been confirmed whether electricity has been restored.
President Emmanuel Macron said on X that “all the nation’s resources were mobilized”, while Prime Minister François Bayrou said the fire is a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale”.
France’s meteorological service forecast that, after a cooler start to the week in the north, heat in the south will intensify over the weekend, bringing scorching temperatures of up to 40C and a high risk of wildfires.
Danger remains high across the Mediterranean coast with temperatures expecting to reach 35C in inland Mediterranean areas.
“In the Aude region, the risk of fire spreading remains very real, although less severe than on Tuesday,” Meteo France said, adding that national temperatures could peak at the beginning of the week.
Meanwhile in Spain, a forest fire has now been brought under control after spreading from the Andalusian resort town of Tarifa on Tuesday afternoon. It spread quickly after a motorhome caught fire and reached areas near Valdevaqueros beach and Estrecho Natural Park, local media reported.
“It's the fastest spreading fire I've ever seen,” Tarifa Mayor José Antonio Santos told La Sexta television channel yesterday. “There are lots of aircraft, everyone has been evacuated.”
Just west of Gibraltar, Tarifa is a lesser-known holiday destination but popular among kite surfers for its windy beaches and laid-back atmosphere.
Located at the southernmost tip of Europe, just west of Gibraltar, Tarifa is home to about 18,000 residents.
Homes, hotels, campsites and restaurants were cleared along a two-mile stretch between La Peña and Casas de Porros.
About 1,550 people, mainly hotel guests, were initially evacuated but have now been allowed to return to their accommodation, El Pais reported.
More than 100 firefighters tackled the blaze, Andalusia’s firefighting agency Infoca said. Seventeen aircraft were also deployed in “record time” to help fight the flames, authorities said.
Spain’s weather service Aemet warned the heatwave will continue until at least Sunday. Temperatures in the Cadiz region could hit 38°C as much of the country is under yellow or amber alerts.
Mediterranean countries are in an area scientists have called “a wildfire hotspot”, with blazes common during hot and dry summers.
Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of the heat and dryness. They also say heatwaves arrived earlier this year, spiking temperatures by up to 10C in some regions.
Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The burning of fuels like gasoline, oil and coal, plus deforestation, wildfires and many kinds of factories release heat-trapping gasses that cause climate change.
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