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Wildfires raged in southwestern France, Spain and Portugal on Saturday, and persistent heat waves across Western Europe forced thousands to evacuate their homes.
Local officials said in a statement that 14,000 people had been evacuated from the Gironde region of France on Saturday afternoon as more than 1,200 firefighters fought to control the flames.
“The fire will continue to spread unless it stabilizes,” Gironde’s deputy prime minister, Langon, Vincent Ferrer, said at a news conference.
Fierce flames struck forests in the Bordeaux region of France for five consecutive days, and wildfires in Portugal injured more than 160 people.
A firefighting plane pilot died in a crash on Friday during an operation in northeastern Portugal. This was the first fire death of the year in Portugal.
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According to statistics from the Charles III Institute of Health, heat waves have resulted in 360 heat-related deaths.
The unusually hot and dry spring dried the soil, causing the fire season to hit parts of Europe earlier than expected.
Firefighters, supported by planes dumping water, are fighting fire in Casas de Miravete in the Extremadura region of southern France and Spain. Greece dispatched firefighting equipment.
In the latest weather warning, 38 of the 96 divisions of France were listed in the “orange” alert, urging residents in these areas to be vigilant. Heat waves in western France are expected to peak on Monday, with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
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In neighboring Spain, firefighters were fighting a series of flames on Saturday after an unusually hot day of 45.7 C (114 F).
A similar scene is taking place in Portugal. In Portugal, more than 3,000 firefighters are desperate to fight with their citizens and save their homes from several wildfires that have raged all over the country.
Firefighters have a rest in Portugal, with temperatures dropping in most parts of the country, most recently after reaching about 40 ° C (104 ° F) on Saturday.
“We’ve had a big fire, and we don’t want them to be revived … we’ll continue to be extremely vigilant this weekend,” said the Emergency and Civil Protection Agency. Commander Andre Fernandez told reporters.
From the beginning of this year to mid-June, a total of 39,550 hectares (98,000 acres) were devastated by wildfires, more than three times the area devastated by the fires during the same period last year, according to data from the Nature Maintenance Institute. Indicated.
Almost two-thirds of that area was burned in the fire last week.
The Portuguese Ministry of Health said 238 people died as a result of the heat wave from July 7th to 13th. Most of them are elderly people with underlying illness.
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Moroccan flames struck more than 2,000 hectares of forest in the northern regions of Larache, Ouezzane, Taza and Tetouan across the Mediterranean from Europe, killing at least one person, according to local authorities.
Firefighters were still struggling to extinguish three hotspots near La Rush, but more than 1,000 households had fled the village and water-carrying planes helped most of the fires by Friday night.
Reuters contributed to this report.