Thousands of people were urged to evacuate on Thursday as wildfires continued to rage in Spain, France and Italy.
The latest fires come as Europe prepares for another heat wave, with temperatures forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.
There will be incidents of forest fire till now in 2026 More land burned in Europe More than the annual average of the last two decades.
Climate change is making extreme weather events, such as heat waves and wildfires, increasingly more severe.
Spain declares national emergency in Madrid region
To better deal with the many out-of-control wildfires, Spain declared a national emergency late Thursday in the Madrid region and Avila province near the capital.
The measure is aimed at speeding up the deployment of resources to fight the fire, which has forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in the area.
The decision also transfers crisis response to the Military Emergency Unit of the Spanish Armed Forces, which specializes in disaster relief.
Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on Twitter that “the government has deployed every available resource to stop the terrible fire that is currently affecting several areas: Avila, Leon, Toledo, Madrid and other parts of Spain.”
Sanchez also visited the fire-ravaged area in Guadalajara, northeast of Madrid, where more than 30 villages were evacuated.
“Year after year we see clearly how climate change kills our communities and destroys wealth,” he said. “This is not politics. This is science, this is about the facts.”
France wants EU civil protection mechanism
Across the border in France, President Emmanuel Macron said France had used the EU’s civil protection mechanism to ask for help to combat the wildfires.
“We will soon be supported by two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractors and two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” Macron posted on Twitter Friday morning.
Authorities on Thursday evacuated 7,000 people “as a precaution” north of Cap Ferret, near the tourist center of Arcachon Bay, bringing the total number of people evacuated in the area to 12,000.
Officials said Wednesday that the fire had destroyed about 2,000 hectares (about 5,000 acres) of land.
Italian authorities blame ‘malicious’ arsonists
About 6,000 firefighters, forest guards and civil protection officials have been deployed across Sicily after the fire raged for several days.
Regional president Renato Schifani said fires were still burning in about 50 locations despite the deployment of water-bombing planes.
And more than 160 fires have been recorded in Calabria, Italy’s mainland.
Local authorities in Calabria have blamed the arson on “malicious individuals”, pointing to rags soaked in flammable liquid that were tied to the tails of stray cats to spread the fire.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko and Carl Sexton
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