Three Greek firefighters died battling blazes during high winds on the island of Crete and the mainland, as wildfires spread across Europe after days of devastating fires in Spain and France.
Two firefighters became trapped in the Crete blaze near the village of Krya Vrysi while they were driving between fire fronts. Another died in a separate fire in the Peloponnese region, a fire department spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday.
Residents and tourists were evacuated from Krya Vrysi and other nearby villages, locals told Reuters by phone, as high winds pushed the fire out of control near popular holiday spots.
“The wind is unbelievable - you can’t stand sometimes. The flames were huge, it was really scary," said resident Chrissa Gioukaki.
The flames headed southeast towards the coastal town of Agia Galini, where hotels line a hill above a small harbour. Tourists were evacuated on buses and in cars on Wednesday afternoon, said Charalampos Sevvas, owner of the Galini Mare hotel.
Earlier on Wednesday, the head of the EU's emergency response centre said that Greece and Italy were set to face a heightened wildfire risk in the coming weeks. Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent, has endured record-breaking heatwaves this year, as human-driven climate change is intensifying the heat and drought that allow wildfires to spread faster.
Blazes have forced large-scale evacuations of people in Spain and France over the past days, scorching through forests and killing wildlife.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska warned of "three tough days" ahead, with strong winds and high temperatures, even as the major fire in the Avila and Madrid region stabilised, allowing authorities to lift some of the evacuation and shelter-in-place orders.
Officials meanwhile warned of another fire in the northwestern Spanish province of Zamora. They issued an evacuation order for six towns and asked about 1000 people to shelter in place.
Spain's weather agency AEMET said temperatures were expected to reach 40 C on Wednesday in at least six regions, which have been placed on orange alert, the second-highest level.
In France, temperatures in the southwest, hit by devastating fires, were expected to rise from around 33 C on Tuesday to peak at 41 C, according to Meteo France, while dry winds in the afternoon could stoke flames. French firefighters kept a major blaze west of Bordeaux stable overnight.
But officials warned the wildfires were far from over. The southwestern municipality of Lege-Cap-Ferret flagged several flare-ups in the area, adding that firefighters had managed to stabilise them.
In Le Temple, around 30 km away, firefighters with trucks and hoses and supported by aircraft worked to extinguish a reigniting fire that set trees and vegetation ablaze.
"We remain vigilant of course today, considering the forecast weather conditions, with a new rise in temperatures and higher wind speeds in the afternoon," firefighter commander Matthieu Jomain told reporters earlier in the day.
The impact on the forests has been widespread. The wildfire in the Landes area west of Bordeaux, a popular tourist destination, has devastated 42,000 hectares of mainly pine trees. Authorities have evacuated about 220,000 people, including holiday-makers and local residents, as the fire threatened the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, only accessible by one road. About 60,000 people have been allowed back.
Four people were arrested in recent days in the area, one on suspicion of stealing jewellery from evacuated houses, two for allegedly stealing food from an evacuation centre in Bordeaux, and one for pretending to be a therapist and offering paid sessions to evacuees, police said.
In Spain, while the situation had improved in the central provinces of Avila and Madrid, a blaze in eastern Castellon remained out of control after burning more than 10,000 hectares as weather conditions triggered several flare-ups.
Around 10,000 evacuated residents were still unable to return to their homes in Castellon.
