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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA wildfire rages through a forested area in Le Porge in southwestern France early on July 23, 2026. The area was previously devastated by major wildfires in 2022. (Photo: AFP)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
ROME – Wildfires continued to sweep across swathes of Italy, France and Spain on Thursday, forcing thousands to flee from blazes fanned by scorching temperatures and strong winds.<\/p>\n
Three firefighters have been killed fighting the flames as southern Europe endures another spell of severe heat, with temperatures topping 40C in some areas.<\/p>\n
Scientists have long warned that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as fires and heatwaves more likely, longer-lasting and more severe.<\/p>\n
In Sicily, around 6,000 firefighters, forest guards and civil protection officials battled dozens of fires that have raged for days across the Mediterranean island despite the deployment of water-bombing aircraft.<\/p>\n
Italian interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said a firefighter died after falling ill while battling the flames.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Italy\u2019s Civil Protection Agency told AFP the situation in Sicily was \u201cserious\u201d and that the fires were \u201cbeing fuelled by very high temperatures and very dry soil\u201d.<\/p>\n
More than 160 fires have also been recorded in the neighbouring Calabria region, which the local civil protection chief blamed on deliberate cases of arson by \u201cmalicious individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n
Among other acts, the alleged arsonists had tied rags soaked in flammable liquid to the tails of stray cats to spread the flames, he said.<\/p>\n
In France, more than 10,000 tourists had evacuated from camping sites and other holiday accommodation near Bordeaux in the southwest on Thursday, as a wildfire ravaged a seaside pine forest.<\/p>\n
The blaze in Le Porge had ripped through 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) \u2014 an area about three times the size of Gibraltar \u2014 since Wednesday, officials said.<\/p>\n
Two firefighters had died on Tuesday tackling a blaze that broke out near Bordeaux airport.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez met the firefighters\u2019 families on Wednesday, as unions warned workers were facing \u201cexhaustion\u201d and a lack of resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a very dense stand of closely packed pines,\u201d firefighter Captain Wilfried Schneider told AFP, describing a fire of \u201crare\u201d intensity.<\/p>\n
\u2018Big black cloud\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw a big cloud of black smoke spread across the sky in the middle of the afternoon,\u201d said Julie Leonard, a Bordeaux resident in her thirties who came with her family to a spot not under threat in Le Porge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019d been brave, I would have stayed in my cabin, but it was too hot. I got in my car and left,\u201d said Bernard Roche, 75, who has lived in the area for 35 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the forest, it\u2019s been particularly dry these last few days,\u201d the former lifeguard said.<\/p>\n
While Le Porge\u2019s mayor Martial Zaninetti said the fire could have been started by a machine used to clear forest track, this is yet to be officially confirmed.<\/p>\n
Around 700 people left their homes as a precaution in Le Porge, where more than 3,000 campers were also relocated, the prefecture said.<\/p>\n
Across the border in Spain, progress made by the firefighters in tackling a major wildfire south of Madrid allowed most residents of the threatened communities to return, the emergency services said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The fire, which broke out on Wednesday near the city of Toledo, around 75 kilometres (45 miles) from the Spanish capital, prompted authorities to order the evacuation of several districts as flames advanced towards homes.<\/p>\n
Villagers in El Encinar del Alberche in the municipality of Villa del Prado were still urged to stay away from their homes.<\/p>\n
Firefighters described overnight efforts as \u201cvery positive\u201d, although the blaze had not yet been stabilised and several roads in the area remained closed.<\/p>\n
But hundreds of firefighters were still battling a much larger wildfire in Guadalajara province, around 100 kilometres north of Madrid, which has burnt about 32,000 hectares since it started last Thursday.<\/p>\n
In 2025, more than 393,000 hectares had been consumed by flames in Spain, according to the European Forest Fire Information System, the worst toll in the country\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wildfire rages through a forested area in Le Porge in southwestern France early on July 23, 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23420,1346,23421,23418,14688,23357,5,23419,23356],"class_list":["post-34678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-bordeaux-forest-fire","tag-climate-change","tag-emergency-evacuation","tag-europe-wildfires","tag-european-heatwave","tag-extreme-weather","tag-italy","tag-sicily-fires","tag-spain-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}