“No casualties.” This is one of the rare consolations of the authorities involved in the face of the forest fires in Gironde: “Fortunately, we do not deplore any human damage, no serious injuries, of course no deaths”reported Monday, July 18, the prefect of the department, Fabienne Buccio. “That’s the main thing, it’s really our daily concern”she underlined, welcoming the “exceptional work of the firefighters”.
>> Fires: follow the evolution of fires and evacuations in France
Among our neighbors in southern Europe, the fires have unfortunately caused victims, mainly among the rescuers, both in Spain, Portugal and Greece.
In Spain, two people killed in the flames
The fires caused the death of a 69-year-old shepherd in the northwest of the country, local authorities announced on Monday. This is the second death recorded, after that of a firefighter on Sunday in the province of Zamora. A dozen localities were evacuated due to a fire that broke out in Losacio late Sunday afternoon.
About 20 forest fires were still raging and remained out of control on Sunday in different parts of the country, from the south to the far northwest in Galicia. The fires have so far destroyed around 4,500 hectares of land this week, in a country that has been in the grip of a sweltering heat wave for more than a week.
“Climate change kills people (…) but also our ecosystem, our biodiversity”reacted the president of the government, Pedro Sanchez, on Monday. “Since the beginning of the year, 70,000 hectares have been destroyed due to fires (…), this is almost double the average of the last decade”, he added. On Monday, almost all of Spain remained on “extreme risk” fire alert, the highest level.
In Portugal, two dead and sixty wounded
According to the latest known report from Portuguese civil protection, the fires of the past week have left two dead and around sixty injured. One of the two victims was the pilot of a water bomber plane, which crashed while fighting forest fires in the Guarda region on Friday.
According to estimates, these fires have ravaged between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of forest and brush since the start of the heat wave. Since the start of 2022, just over 30,000 hectares have gone up in smoke in Portugal, the highest figure on July 15 since 2017, a year marked by deadly forest fires that killed around 100 people.
Almost all of Portuguese territory presented, on Sunday, a “maximum”, “very high” or “high” risk to fires, in particular the regions of the central and northern interior. On Monday morning, some 800 firefighters were still battling four blazes in central and northern Portugal. After beating its temperature record for the month of July, with 47°C recorded in the north of the country on Thursday, Portugal was to experience a much cooler day on Monday, putting an end to a heatwave episode of more than a year. week.
In Greece, two victims in a water bomber helicopter crash
As in Spain and Portugal, the summer season has already been deadly. On Wednesday evening, two crew members of a helicopter perished in the crash of their aircraft, engaged in the fight against a forest fire on the island of Samos. Thursday, a100 firefighters, 15 vehicles and two planes supported by the army and volunteers were still fighting the flames.
About fifty fires raged last Thursday in Greece. In this country accustomed to violent fires, a new front opened on Friday morning in Crete, causing the preventive evacuation of seven villages in a rural area of the prefecture of Rethymnon. This fire came under control on Sunday.