A massive wildfire that has been blazing in the south of the country for more than a month has caused France to request assistance from all over Europe.
As Europe’s record-breaking summer heatwave got underway in early July, a fire started to burn.
It later rekindled a few days later, forcing 10,000 people from their homes and consuming 7,000 hectares of pine forest.
Now, hundreds of firefighters from Germany, Poland, Romania, and Italy are travelling to Gironde, close to Bordeaux, to help put out the fire.
Locals describe biblical scenes as Sweden and Greece send water-bombing planes to help put out the fires.
Living in Belin-Beliet, Valentine Dupy described the area as “like an apocalypse.” There is a lot of smoke, and planes are dumping orange powder over the flames.
A record-breaking summer of heatwaves and drought has dried out the continent of Europe and made the woodlands tinder-dry.
By the end of the week, a glacier pass in Switzerland that has been ice-covered for the past 2000 years will be ice-free because it has all melted.
Firefighters claimed that they had been able to preserve her community, which had been reduced to a deserted wasteland after authorities ordered inhabitants to flee as the flames approached.
However, the fire spread outside, leaving burnt tractors and destroyed homes in its wake.
“We’ve been fortunate. Our homes were kept alive. But you can clearly see the tragedy there. Gaetan, a local, pointed to some destroyed homes and remarked, “Some dwellings could not be spared.”
361 firefighters, trucks, and waterbombing planes were on their way from throughout Europe to support the 1,100 French firefighters already on the ground.
According to Matthieu Jomain, a spokesman for the Gironde firefighter, “We are still in the phase of (trying to) confine the fire, direct it where we want it, where there is less vegetation, and where our vehicles can best position themselves… so we can eventually fix it, control it, and extinguish it.”
According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System, there have been fires in France this year that have burned more than 60,000 hectares (230 square miles), which is six times the full-year average from 2006 to 2021.
According to French authorities, the Gironde region will have high temperatures through Saturday, with Thursday’s high expected to be 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
Firefighters issued a “explosive cocktail” of weather warnings, saying that the wind and tinder-box conditions will help fuel the fires.
Large wildfires that ravaged more than 20,000 hectares of woodland and temporarily evicted over 40,000 people from their homes struck the Gironde in July.
Mayor of Hostens Jean-Louis Dartiailh called the recent weeks a catastrophe. “The area has been completely altered.”
He told Radio Classique, “We’re fatigued and heartbroken.” “(This fire) is the tipping point.”
A major heat wave and drought are currently affecting Europe, with tragic results for farmers and ecosystems that are already at risk from pollution and climate change.
Flames blazed over pine forests overnight in France, which is experiencing its worst drought on record.
The Gironde region, which was previously devastated by flames last month, and the nearby Landes lit up the sky with an intense orange light.
Since Tuesday, a total of 68 square kilometres (26 square miles) had burned.
Volunteers have been gathering dead fish that have washed ashore in Poland and Germany along the Oder River, which flows from Czechia north into the Baltic Sea.
According to Piotr Nieznanski, director of conservation strategy at WWF Poland, it looks that an enterprise spilled a harmful chemical into the river, and the low water levels brought on by the drought have made the situation much more hazardous for the fish.
He urged the government to launch an investigation, saying, “A sad occurrence is unfolding along the Oder Waterway, an international river, and there is no transparent information about what is going on.”
Residents who live near the river have been advised not to swim in it or even touch it.
The drought and high temperatures, according to Poland’s state water management organisation, can cause even little levels of pollution to result in an ecological catastrophe, although the organisation has not yet determined the source of the pollution.
The Conopljankso reservoir’s dry bed in northern Serbia is currently covered in dead fish that were unable to endure the drought.
The Rhine River in Germany was in danger of dropping to a level where it would be difficult to convey products, especially essential energy supplies like coal and gasoline.
The dry Po River in Italy, which is suffering from its worst drought in seven decades, has already cost farmers who typically depend on Italy’s longest river to irrigate their fields and rice terraces billions of dollars in losses.
Antonio Cestari, a 35-year-old farmer in Ficarolo, said he expects to produce only half his usual crops of corn, wheat, and soy because his river-fed wells have such low water levels.
“I am young and I do not remember anything like this, but even the elderly in my village or the other villages around here have never seen anything like this, never,” Cestari said.
The distance down the Po from Turin in northwest Italy to Venice is 652 kilometres (405 miles).
Although it has numerous tributary rivers, northern Italy hasn’t had any rain in months, and this year’s snowfall was 70% lower than usual.
Water supplies in Italy’s heavily industrialised and densely populated areas are also in danger due to the Po’s drying up.
A wildfire was also destroying the Serra da Estrela national park in Portugal.
A total of 1,500 firefighters, 476 trucks, and 12 aircraft were sent to combat the blaze, but it was exceedingly difficult to get there due to impassable heights about 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) high and deep ravines.
The fire occurred 250 kilometres (150 miles) northeast of Lisbon. 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of woods have been destroyed by the fire.
The weather service in Britain has issued a fresh warning for “severe heat” from Thursday through Sunday, with temperatures expected to exceed 36 C, breaking the country’s previous record of 40.3 C (104.5 F) (96.8 F).
Southern Britain has experienced one of its driest summers on record, and the Met Office meteorological office warned that there is a “extreme risk” of wildfires in the coming days.
Eight times as many grass, rubbish, and open-land fires as last year occurred during the first week of August, according to the London Fire Brigade’s control room.
The grass in London is “tinderbox dry,” according to Assistant Commissioner Jonathan Smith, and even the tiniest spark can ignite a fire that could cause great destruction.
In Switzerland, a drought and high temperatures have put fish populations in peril, and authorities have started removing fish from some dry rivers.
In the nearly dried-up Heischerbach, Juchbach, and Muehlebach creeks in Hausen, canton of Zurich, officials this week caught hundreds of fish, many of which were brown trout, by anaesthetizing them with electric shocks and immediately placing them in a water tank enriched with oxygen, according to local media. The fish were later transported to creeks with enough water.
In spite of all the damage brought on by the extreme weather, Swiss officials see one morbid benefit: they think there’s a chance of finding some people who went missing in the mountains recently because their bodies are being released as glaciers melt.
A crashed aeroplane and at least two skeletons have recently been discovered in the Swiss canton of Valais as a result of melting glaciers.
As of Thursday, the bodies had not yet been identified, according to the news website 20Minuten.
Numerous trucks that were on their way to France were forced to turn around and remain in Spain due to wildfires that required authorities to close some border crossings, as seen on Spanish state television.
According to TVE, truckers were searching for alternate routes across the border because the parking spaces near the Irun crossing were filled and many of them were hauling perishable commodities.
The government describes the current drought in France as the worst on record, and the country is currently experiencing its fourth heat wave of the year. On Thursday, a temperature of 40 C (104 F) was predicted.