Three Greek firemen died battling blazes during high winds on the island of Crete and the mainland as wildfires spread across Europe yesterday after days of devastating fires in Spain and France.
Two firemen became trapped in the Crete blaze near the village of Krya Vrysi while they were driving between fire fronts.
Another died in a separate fire in the Peloponnese region, a fire department spokesperson told Reuters.
Residents and tourists were evacuated from Krya Vrysi and other nearby villages, locals told Reuters by phone, as high winds pushed the fire out of control near popular holiday spots.
“The wind is unbelievable – you can’t stand sometimes. The flames were huge, it was really scary,” said resident Chrissa Gioukaki.
The flames headed southeast towards the coastal town of Agia Galini, where hotels line a hill above a small harbour.
Tourists were evacuated on buses and in cars yesterday afternoon, said Charalampos Sevvas, owner of the Galini Mare hotel.
The head of the EU’s emergency response centre said that Greece and Italy were set to face a heightened wildfire risk in the coming weeks.
Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, has endured record-breaking heatwaves this year, as human-driven climate change is intensifying the heat and drought that allow wildfires to spread faster.
Blazes have forced large-scale evacuations of people in Spain and France over the past days, scorching through forests and killing wildlife.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska warned of ‘three tough days’ ahead, with strong winds and high temperatures, even as the major fire in the Avila and Madrid region stabilised, allowing authorities to lift some of the evacuation and shelter-in-place orders.
Officials meanwhile warned of another fire in the northwestern Spanish province of Zamora.
They issued an evacuation order for six towns and asked about 1,000 people to shelter in place.
Spain’s weather agency AEMET said temperatures were expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius yesterday in at least six regions, which have been placed on orange alert, the second-highest level.
In France, temperatures in the southwest, hit by devastating fires, were expected to rise from around 33C on Tuesday to peak at 41C, according to Meteo France, while dry winds in the afternoon could stoke flames.
French firemen kept a major blaze west of Bordeaux stable overnight.
And near Bordeaux’s airport, which has remained open, tramway services resumed and hotels reopened.
But officials warned the wildfires were far from over.
The southwestern municipality of Lege-Cap-Ferret flagged several flare-ups in the area, adding that firemen had managed to stabilise them.
In Le Temple, around 30 km away, firemen with trucks and hoses and supported by aircraft worked to extinguish a reigniting fire that set trees and vegetation ablaze.
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