Two people died in a wildfire in Spain’s Catalonia region a day ago, which was largely contained though more wind and thunder storms were expected on Wednesday, emergency services and officials said, as Europe grappled with a severe heatwave.
The blaze in Torrefeta broke out in a farming area on Tuesday afternoon, destroying several farms, and affecting an area stretching for about 40km, firefighters said, adding there were no other casualties.
“The fire was extremely violent and erratic due to storms and strong winds, generating a convection cloud that complicated extinguishing efforts,” the fire service said in a statement.
Authorities warned that more storms were expected on Wednesday afternoon and urged vigilance.
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“Please exercise caution and follow all instructions and recommendations from the emergency services,” Catalonia’s regional leader Salvador Illa said in a post on X.
About 14,000 residents were asked to remain indoors for several hours on Tuesday.
The wildfire comes as Italy limited work outdoors, France shut schools and Turkey battled wildfires on Tuesday in a European heatwave that meteorologists said was “exceptional” for striking so early this year.
Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET, which earlier this week reported its hottest June on record, issued warnings for high temperatures, storms and high winds across much of the Iberian Peninsula on Wednesday.
“What is exceptional ... but not unprecedented is the time of year,” said World Meteorological Organisation spokeswoman Clare Nullis.
[ ‘It feels like swimming in soup’: Irish in Europe describe life in heatwaveOpens in new window ]
Europe was experiencing extreme heat episodes “which normally we would see later on in the summer”, she said.
Some countries issued health alerts and trade unions attributed the death of a construction worker near the Italian city of Bologna on Monday to the heat.
Power outages, likely caused or aggravated by spiking electricity consumption from air conditioners, were reported in central Florence and in the northern city of Bergamo. In Sicily, a woman with a heart condition died while walking in the city of Bagheria, news agencies reported.
In the Spanish city of Barcelona, authorities were looking into whether the death of a street sweeper at the weekend was heat-related.
The Red Cross set up an air-conditioned “climate refuge” for residents in Malaga in southern Spain, said a spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Turkey continued to battle the wildfires that forced the temporary evacuation of about 50,000 people on Monday in areas surrounding the city of Izmir and in the nearby province of Manisa, as well as Hatay in the southeast.
In France, nearly 1,900 schools were closed, up from about 200 on Monday. The heat was set to peak in France on Tuesday at 40-41 degrees in some areas, weather forecaster Meteo France said.
Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a cause of climate change, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet’s hottest on record.- Reuters
