Firefighters have been battling fires in southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula for days. In Gironde, where the flames hit the municipalities of La Teste-de-Buch and Landiras, “the situation will remain difficult in the next 2-3 days”, indicated on July 16, 2022 on franceinfo Arnaud Mandousse, officer of communication from the department’s fire brigade.
Nearly 3,150 hectares of forest burned in La Teste-de-Buch, not far from the Pilas dune: “Here, there were tunnels of fire, you have to imagine a ball of fire”, explains to AFP the commander Laurent Dellac, spokesperson for the fire brigade. The latter had to fight “hand to hand” with the flames in Cazaux, a small town near the forest, until they “stopped the head of fire”. All the inhabitants of Cazaux have been evacuated and there are no casualties. The origin of the fire is said to be a broken down truck, which caught fire on a forest road. According to the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office, the vehicle should be appraised on July 18, 2022 in the afternoon.
In Landiras, 6,500 hectares have been consumed since July 12. The prosecution announced that “the criminal thesis is privileged”. While traveling in Calvados on July 15, 2022, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told BFMTV that an electric car was the source of the fire. On Twitter, the prefect of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Gironde called for caution: “In the last 24 hours the SDIS has had to deal with 22 forest fire starts in the Gironde department. “, she specifies.
The Portuguese were less fortunate than the Girondins and have two dead victims of the fires: in particular the pilot of a water bomber plane which was fighting forest fires crashed Friday July 15 near Vila Nova de Foz Coa, in the region of Guarda, in the north of the country, reports franceinfo. On this date, the country had 30,000 hectares of forest gone up in smoke; this is the highest figure since 2017, when forest fires killed around 100 people. This is not the only record: temperatures had reached 47°C in the north of the country. More than 900 firefighters are mobilized around ten active fires.
In the neighboring country, Spain, two fires are worrying the authorities: that of Extremadura, a border region of Portugal, where thousands of hectares have been consumed in recent days, and in Mijas, in Andalusia in the south of the country. In the southwest of the country, most regions exceeded 40°C.
Further north, the United Kingdom is battling an unprecedented heat wave, France 24 reports in an article published on July 16, 2022. The country has issued a “red alert” for next Monday and Tuesday, and the British population must prepare for temperatures never before reached, exceeding their record of 38.7°C in 2019. The NHS (public health service) has warned of the increase in hospitalizations due to the heat.
Ireland and Belgium are also preparing for an increase in temperatures of up to 37°C or even 38°C.
