Nearly 20 people remain missing after wildfires broke out Thursday in Spain’s arid region near the Mediterranean coast, local authorities said.
The rapidly spreading fire killed at least 12 people and left four with severe burns.
The wildfire near Almeria in the Mediterranean Sea is the first to cause multiple casualties in Europe this year, but is just one of several that have destroyed thousands of hectares in recent weeks as much of southern Europe endures unprecedented heat.
This week, two large-scale fires broke out in France, forcing the evacuation of 12,000 people in the Pyrenees, and large fires broke out in central Portugal, with satellite images showing smoke drifting all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Researchers say summer fires in southern Europe are not new, but they have occurred earlier this year and are becoming more intense.
In much of France and Spain, an unusually wet winter wiped out much of the vegetation, which quickly burned out as three consecutive heatwaves pushed temperatures into the low 30s Celsius.
According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), this has led to a sharp rise in the number of large fires.
So far this year, there have been 314 fires of more than 30 hectares each in European Union member states, almost double the 158 at the same time last year and the second highest number since 2016. Additionally, as of July 8, the area of land lost was 160,000 hectares, compared to an average of just under 100,000 hectares since 2006.
EFFIS said in a bulletin this week: “Very extreme conditions occupy large areas of western and central Europe, with the highest concentration across France, Spain and northern Portugal, with an Alpine arc extending into northern Italy, southern Britain and south-east Ireland.”
Fires not only cause direct casualties, but also increase the amount of carbon dioxide and toxic smoke in the atmosphere, which can have deadly consequences in and of itself. .
Last August’s fires in Spain and Portugal killed more than 2,000 people prematurely due to smoke exposure and caused unprecedented fire spread at night, a new study by Spanish and US scientists has found.
The total energy produced by these is “comparable to the annual energy production of a 1,000 MW nuclear reactor,” the researchers found. The researchers noted that the pattern of “growing large fires” indicates that fire intensity is increasing. Furthermore, rural depopulation is said to be a contributing factor, as much land remains untouched.
This may have contributed to the Almeria fire. Spanish officials said some of the victims tried to flee by car along the railroad tracks but were engulfed in flames.
In addition to the fire danger, heat domes trapping high temperatures across Europe have other knock-on effects.
More than 2,000 people died in France due to the heat in the last week of June. France recorded its hottest day on record on June 24th. France’s Health Minister Stéphanie List said the number of deaths in the last week of June was 29% higher than the previous week, with a “clear increase” in deaths among people over 45.
Not surprisingly, more and more French households are installing air conditioning. According to France’s Energy Transition Agency, only 24% of French homes have air conditioning, up from 18% just two years ago, but still far behind the roughly 50% in neighboring Italy.
However, air conditioning units pump heat into the surrounding environment, reinforcing a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect, especially at night.
Rising river temperatures are also affecting France’s nuclear power plants, which require water as a coolant. French power company EDF announced that power generation at its Nogent nuclear power plant on the Seine River will be cut from Tuesday, for the second time this summer. Another nuclear reactor on the Garonne River in southwestern France halted production after water temperatures reached 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit).
This year’s heatwave in Europe has also significantly lowered harvest forecasts, especially for maize (maize). Grain trade association Coceral lowered its forecast for EU and UK maize production to 52.7 million tonnes from 57.2 million tonnes last month.
The French corn harvest is expected to be less than 10 million tonnes, the lowest in 20 years. Koceral also revised down its European-wide barley and wheat production forecast.
Additionally, the increasing tropical climate of southern Europe is contributing to an increase in diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and other insects. A recent Italian study found that the risk of a dengue epidemic in Europe increased by 56% between 2013 and 2022 compared to 1951-1960.
“Diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, traditionally restricted to tropical regions, are now occurring in temperate regions and urban areas,” the authors write.
