Heatwave and Wildfires Sweep Europe; 10,000 Evacuated in France

A deadly heatwave drove wildfires across southern and western Europe in early July, with about 10,000 people evacuated from a fire in southwest France as temperatures approached 40 degrees Celsius.

A heat dome over the continent

A high-pressure heat dome pushed temperatures toward 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, across France, southern England and the Iberian Peninsula. The extreme heat set the stage for fast-moving fires in several countries as dry conditions spread. The heat stretched over a broad area from the Iberian Peninsula to southern England.

Fires in France and Spain

About 10,000 people were evacuated because of a wildfire in the Pyrenees-Orientales region of southwest France, where the fire burned roughly 46 square kilometers. In the Girona region of northeastern Spain, nearly 2,200 hectares were destroyed by a fire that had been burning since Friday, July 3. The two fires were among the most damaging of the outbreak across the region. The Pyrenees-Orientales fire in southwest France and the Girona fire in northeastern Spain accounted for the largest evacuations and burned areas reported during the outbreak.

A large-scale response

The European Union deployed a record number of firefighters, along with 22 firefighting aircraft, to battle the blazes. The response stretched across multiple countries as crews worked to contain fires fueled by the heat and dry conditions. The scale of the deployment, described as a record, reflected the number of fronts on which crews were working during the heatwave.