AP
Le Porge (France)
Europe’s wildfire emergency eased across much of western Europe on Saturday, with major fires in France and Spain no longer advancing and Portugal’s main blaze under control. But the crisis worsened in Greece, where gale-force winds drove flames through a seaside resort and triggered fresh evacuations.
In southwestern France, firefighters held a vast wildfire within its perimeter, with about 198,000 people now allowed home after what may have been the country’s largest
peacetime evacuation.
A second French fire that raced across 10 square kilometres in six hours Friday – “faster than a horse at full gallop,” according to the prefecture – also stopped expanding overnight. But it remained active Saturday and 2,500 people were still unable to
return home. The progress marked a sharp turn from the height of the crisis, when fires in France and Spain alone drove a third of a million people from homes and vacation sites.
, emptied towns during the summer holiday season and stretched firefighters, aircraft and emergency services across simultaneous emergencies.
Portugal’s major wildfire was declared under control, while Spain’s largest fires were no longer making sustained advances and most evacuation orders had been lifted.
But Europe’s emergency isn’t over; its most dangerous front has shifted toward Greece. New fires erupted Saturday as powerful winds whipped up flames, carried embers across dry landscapes and prevented some aircraft from collecting water or approaching closely enough to make drops.
The danger carried grim resonance in Attica, where the 2018 wildfire at the seaside community of Mati killed 104 people, making it the world’s second-deadliest wildfire of the 21st century.
Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.
