On Wednesday, Spain recorded “more than 500” deaths linked to the heat wave sweeping western Europe this week, which led to devastating fires and a temperature rise to record levels.
“The climate emergency is a reality” and “climate change is killing,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said during his visit to the fire-affected region of Aragon, in the northeast of the country.
He stressed that the temperatures, which remained exceptionally high over a period of 10 days, caused the death of “more than 500 people”, referring to estimates of death rates from the Institute of Public Health.
The heat wave, which struck western European countries in recent days, especially Spain, Portugal, Britain and France, and broke many temperature records, is the second extreme heat phenomenon in about one month in Europe.
Britain recorded a record 40.3 degrees Celsius in the village of Coningsby, in northeastern England, according to the Met Office.
The record was surpassed in Scotland with 34.8 degrees Celsius, while France set more than 60 records for temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in some cities.
Denmark also recorded, on Wednesday, the highest temperature for the month of July, reaching 35.6 degrees.
Record temperatures are sometimes too dangerous for employees, leading unions to demand more protective measures.
After Spain, where two people died in the Madrid region due to heatstroke at work, the French health authorities announced, on Wednesday, that two people had died, during recent days, at work as part of accidents that “may be related” to the current wave.
Fires recede in France and Greece
Since July 12, two fires have been burning in the Gironde, a province in southwest France on the Atlantic coast, with 20,600 hectares of forest destroyed, 13,600 hectares of forest in Landeras, and 7,000 hectares in La Teste de Bosch.
The progress of the fire appeared to slow on Wednesday. Arnaud Mendos, a spokesman for the fire brigade, said after 300 hectares of land burned in the last hours, the fires “have not yet been stopped”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would have to “buy more” firefighting planes to deal with forest fires that are likely to increase in frequency.
Several fires broke out elsewhere in Europe, including one in northern Athens. After a difficult night, firefighters were able to put out the flames on Wednesday.
In Slovenia, hundreds of firefighters were deployed, on Wednesday, near the border with Italy to fight a fire that led to the evacuation of many villages.
In the town of Winnington in east London, a fire spread over an area of 40 hectares, about 30 kilometers from the center of the British capital.