"We are sending firefighters to their deaths"

Fires set or sparked by thunderstorms, fanned by a heatwave and strong winds, continued to rage across southern Europe yesterday, burning down homes, farms and factories and forcing thousands of locals and tourists to evacuate.

Fires have burned almost 2025 hectares in the eurozone so far in 440.000, double the average for the same period of the year since 2006, according to data from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (EU Science Hub).

Flames and thick smoke rose above a cement factory engulfed in a fire that, as it swept through olive groves and forests, disrupted rail traffic on the outskirts of the Greek city of Patras, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens.

"What does it look like? It looks like doomsday. May God help the people here," Giorgos Karvanis, a volunteer who came to Patras from Athens to provide aid, told Reuters.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of a town of about 7.700 people near Patras on Tuesday, and issued new warnings yesterday, advising residents of two nearby villages to leave their homes.

Imagine an industrial building with no smoke detectors, no sprinkler system, no fire doors and no escape routes - firefighters would simply refuse to enter, but in our environment we expect them to do so.

On the Greek islands of Chios, in the east, and Kefalonia, in the west, both popular with tourists, authorities ordered people to shelter in place as the fires spread.

In Spain, a 35-year-old volunteer firefighter died from severe burns and several people were hospitalized, while the state meteorological agency AEMET warned that almost the entire country was at extreme or very high risk of fires.

The man who died was trying to make firebreaks near the town of Nogarejas, in the central region of Castile and Leon, when he was engulfed in flames.

He is the sixth person to die in forest fires in Spain this year. Other victims include two firefighters in Tarragona and Avila, emergency services said.

Working in unprepared areas puts firefighters' lives at risk, said Alexander Held, a fire management expert at the European Forest Institute.

Authorities must make a greater effort to predict and prevent forest fires by creating buffer zones and removing flammable vegetation, he said.

“Imagine an industrial building with no smoke detectors, no sprinkler system, no fire doors and no evacuation exits - firefighters would simply refuse to enter, but in our environment we expect them to do so,” Held said.

Investing €9,9 billion a year in forest management could save 99 million hectares - an area the size of Portugal - and €615 billion spent on firefighting and restoration work afterwards, according to Greenpeace. The organization has estimated that the costs of the fires in Spain so far have been €XNUMX million.

Spanish Environment Minister Sara Agesen said that due to the severity of the fires, it is suspected that many were deliberately started by arsonists.

A firefighter was arrested on Tuesday over fires that broke out two weeks ago in the Avila area, north of Madrid, while police said late on Tuesday they were investigating a 63-year-old woman for allegedly setting a series of fires in the Muxía area of Galicia in August.

According to Greenpeace estimates, investing one billion euros a year in forest management could save 9,9 million hectares and 99 billion euros spent on firefighting and restoration.

Police have also identified a suspect believed to have suffered burns to his hands after starting a small fire in a coastal settlement in the southern coastal region of Cadiz.

Thunderstorms also sparked other fires.

The Spanish minister said that the deadly fires are a clear indicator of a climate emergency and the need for better preparation and prevention, the Guardian reported.

"Our country is particularly vulnerable to climate change. We have the resources now, but as scientific evidence and general expectations indicate that their impact will increase, we must work to strengthen and professionalize those resources."

A fire in the Portuguese town of Trancoso, which has been burning since Saturday, worsened overnight when, according to the civil protection service, lightning re-ignited an area that was considered safe.

In Albania, Defense Minister Piro Vengu said this is a "critical week" as several large fires are burning across the country.

Around 10.000 firefighters, soldiers and police emergency units battled a total of 24 fires across the country yesterday, the defence ministry said.

The flames engulfed houses in two villages in the central part of the country, forcing locals to flee, taking their livestock with them.

“We are going between two rivers because the fire has arrived,” Hajri Dragoti, 68, from Narta, who fled with his wife, leading a cow, a donkey and a dog, told Reuters. “We can’t do anything, it’s like gunpowder.”

The Guardian reported that a fire in southern Albania was caused by explosions after buried World War II artillery shells detonated. Officials said yesterday that an 80-year-old man had died in the fire south of Tirana.

Yesterday marked the tenth day of a heatwave in Spain, which culminated on Tuesday with temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius, and which AEMET predicts will last until Monday, making it one of the longest on record.