Firefighters continue to battle wildfires across Europe, with flames engulfing numerous countries and forcing tens of thousands to flee. The scope of the situation has stretched resources thin.
Wildfires continued to blaze across Europe on Thursday with progress being reported on some fronts and deaths on others.
In Greece, firefighters have made progress in their fight with at least four major fires, one of which threatens the country’s third-largest city, Patras. A fire department spokesman said “scattered” pockets of fires were “still active” in the western port city of 200,000 and that fire risk remained, “extremely high across much of the country.”
On Wednesday, authorities in Patras ordered the evacuation of a children’s hospital and a retirement home to protect residents from the approaching flames. Citizens have joined efforts to beat back the fires and more than a dozen firefighters have been hospitalized or received emergency medical treatment.
Fire knows no borders — Albania and Turkey report deaths
As is the case across all of heat-soaked Europe, Greece’s firefighting resources — 600 ground crews and nearly 30 water-carrying aircraft — are stretched thin. Beyond fighting four major fires at home, Athens has assisted neighboring Albania, joining an international effort to combat dozens of wildfires there.
In central Albania, authorities say dozens of houses were destroyed and four villages had to be evacuated when a sea of flames approached a former army ammunition depot. That came as explosions from buried World War II munitions were reported near Albania’s border with Greece. Fire near the capital Tirana killed an 80-year-old man.
In Turkey, where fires have raged since June, a forestry worker was killed in an accident involving a fire truck said authorities. Four individuals were injured. Fires in Turkey killed 18 people in July, 10 of them volunteer rescuers and forestry workers.
Spain PM Sanchez honors fallen firefighter
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed condolences for the death — the third in as many days — of a volunteer firefighter in Castile and Leon, north of the capital, Madrid.
Sanchez wrote on X, “We do not forget the injured or the neighbors who are suffering the pain of the fire,” adding “the threat remains extreme” and thanking “the heroes who continue to face the fire to protect us all.”
Thousands have been displaced across the region and fire has also severed rail service between Madrid and northwestern Galicia.
Neighboring Portugal has also been forced to deploy more than 2,100 firefighters and 20 aircraft in a battle against five major fires.
Is the EU helping fight fires?
On Wednesday Spain announced that it had asked the European Union (EU) for material assistance, namely the supply of two water-carrying planes.
The EU has actively assisted member and non-member countries alike in battling flames across the continent, often deploying ground crews and water aircraft.
Recently, assets were deployed to Montenegro, where wildfires still burn.
As hotter and drier weather has become the norm across the continent, so, too, have massive wildfires.
Authorities point to numerous causes for them — ranging from natural phenomena like lightning, to careless behavior, negligent farming practices, poorly maintained power lines and arson motivated by real estate speculation.
Edited: Louis Oelofse
DW News
