Emergency services tackle wildfires and heatwave impacts in Southern Europe
Authorities launched a large-scale emergency response in Zamora province, Spain, after a fire broke out at the Zaresa waste treatment plant, prompting multiple emergency calls.
Over 12,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land have burned in Greece within a week, highlighting the escalating devastation attributed to severe heat and inadequate land management practices.
“I would say that it is definitely one of the worst fire crises I’ve seen in the past, maybe eight to 10 years,” said senior wildfire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros.
Extreme heat grips Southern Europe as Spain sends toxic alerts and France shuts reactors
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Emergency services across Southern Europe are operating at maximum capacity as severe heat and environmental hazards continue to trigger crises in Spain, France, and Greece.
In Spain’s Zamora province, a large-scale emergency response was launched after a fire broke out at the Zaresa waste treatment plant in Roales del Pan. Emergency dispatchers received nearly 40 calls reporting a thick toxic smoke column, prompting authorities to issue ES-Alert notifications instructing nearby residents to remain indoors, while police closed a lane on the A-11 motorway, according to the Civil Guard in Zamora.
The blaze, which started in a waste treatment warehouse belonging to the company Zaresa, has caused no injuries.
France’s nuclear fleet under pressure
While emergency crews in Spain fought localised industrial flames, extreme summer temperatures across France forced nuclear operator EDF to take major reactors offline. Three nuclear reactors at the Chooz and Cattenom plants were shut down to preserve river flow levels and comply with environmental water regulations, as a drop in water flow caused by the heatwaves.
The nuclear operator says this decision was taken “to ensure a sufficient water flow for the various users of the river, in France as well as in Belgium”.
The Ardennes and Moselle departments have been placed on yellow heatwave alert this Monday.
France has 57 nuclear reactors, providing almost 70% of the country’s electricity production. All of them are located close to a river or the coast to allow the installations to be cooled.
‘One of the worst’ in a decade, expert says
Further south, the relentless heatwave fueled an escalating environmental disaster in Greece.
Senior wildfire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros warned the country is enduring “one of the worst fire crises” in a decade, with blazes claiming 5 lives over the past two weeks, as the country grapples with a succession of massive wildfires.
“I would say that it is definitely one of the worst fire crises I’ve seen in the past, maybe eight to 10 years,” Giannaros said, but added they cannot make a direct comparison right now in terms of burnt areas or number of ignitions. “We will have to wait until the end of the fire season to do such a quantitative comparison.”
More than 12,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land have burned over the past week, according to analyses by the European Union‘s Copernicus Earth observation programme.
Explaining the drivers behind the fires, Giannaros said it would be easy to blame climate change and weather alone. “Climate change is indeed creating conditions that are highly conducive to these kinds of fires, allowing them to spread very easily and become uncontrollable,” he said.
But, he argued, the broader picture in Greece and across Europe also points to failures in land management.
Additional sources • AFP