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Three Greek firefighters die as fires near Bordeaux and Madrid are contained

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The Greek fire department says three firefighters died while battling blazes on Crete and in the south of the mainland. In France and Spain, crews contained the large fires near Bordeaux and west of Madrid, but high winds and a fourth heatwave threaten flare-ups, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the next 12 hours decisive. SNCF is keeping TGV services south of Bordeaux cancelled until Sunday.

Spain FranceEuropean CommissionEuropean Forest Fire Information SystemSociété nationale des chemins de fer français

Southern Europe wildfires

What happened

The Greek fire department said three of its firefighters died while tackling wildfires on Crete and in the south of the mainland. In France, crews kept a fire in the pine forests near Bordeaux from reaching the city's suburbs; the Gironde prefecture put the burned area at 42,000 hectares and said 126 firefighters had been injured since the fire began. Spanish emergency services contained the blaze west of Madrid overnight, and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska described the largest wildfire in Spanish records as technically stabilised, while a separate fire near València stayed out of control. Temperatures reached 38C in Bordeaux and 37C in Madrid during the fourth heatwave of western Europe's summer, accompanied by strong winds. Sánchez said the next 12 hours would be decisive and noted that Spain had raised a fire to operational level 3 for the first time, putting the national government in charge of the response. According to the Guardian, more than 330,000 people in southern Europe have left homes and hotels; officials began lifting evacuation orders on Tuesday.

The view from outside

Outlets outside the affected countries read the summer as a structural test rather than a single emergency. The New York Times frames the season as a reckoning for Europe on climate and warns that worse may lie ahead even as the fires slow. The Guardian cites the European Forest Fire Information System, according to which fires have burned a record area of France, with France and Spain also recording record numbers of fires for this time of year.

What could happen next

SNCF extended the cancellation of TGV services south of Bordeaux to Sunday 2 August, saying the prefecture has not lifted rail restrictions and the network operator cannot yet inspect its installations; it is adding more than 9,000 seats via Toulouse, and the transport ministry has extended free rebooking until 4 August. New fires broke out in the Var near Brignoles, where 600 to 700 people left the area, at Couchey near Dijon and again in the Fontainebleau forest. In Spain, the Castilla y León government evacuated twelve villages around Fermoselle in the Arribes del Duero national park, with roughly 950 people brought to safety according to media reports. Sánchez put the number of active fires in Spain at ten and said he has asked the European Commission to set up a European firefighting centre at Son Sant Joan on Mallorca.

Worth reading

Sources

The GuardianLe MondeEl País

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