Athens, Greece. Wildfires driven by heavy and gale-force winds burned across several areas of Greece on Saturday, including near Athens, prompting major firefighting operations and emergency evacuations. Fire conditions also worsened in parts of Spain and France.
Greece on high alert
Greece had experienced fewer heatwaves and a relatively quiet fire season until recent days, but fires flared across the country as strong winds intensified.
Authorities issued emergency alerts for several areas on Saturday and warned of an extreme wildfire risk in the regions of Attica and Evia.
Fire reignites in France
In France, a wildfire in the mountainous southeastern Var department, which had been brought under control three days earlier, flared up again on Friday.
The blaze spread across more than 1,000 hectares in six hours, according to BFM TV. Nearly 2,500 people were evacuated overnight, while firefighters deployed reinforcements on Saturday as stronger winds were expected to complicate containment efforts.
Spain continues firefighting operations
Spain continued to battle several wildfire hot spots, two days after the government declared the end of a national emergency caused by major fires in the country’s central provinces.
Conditions deteriorated in the northern province of Leon, where a new fire broke out on Friday night, another remained active and a third was developing favourably, authorities said.
In neighbouring Zamora province, a fire that burned about 11,000 hectares improved sufficiently for 14 evacuated towns to reopen and for restrictions to be lifted.
Stabilised fires and arson investigation
In the eastern province of Castellon, the Vall d’Uixo fire was stabilised on its seventh day after burning nearly 10,000 hectares, allowing all evacuated residents to return.
Police said they suspected arson after finding two separate ignition points.
Major fires in the central regions of Madrid and Avila, which burned more than 70,000 hectares, were stabilised. A new outbreak near the San Juan reservoir was extinguished on Friday.
Europe has faced widespread wildfires this summer following successive record-breaking heatwaves and limited rainfall, with villages in France and Spain destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people forced to leave homes and holiday accommodation.
