Wildfires are sweeping across multiple areas of Greece, including near Athens, with large-scale firefighting operations and emergency evacuations underway. The blazes, fanned by heavy winds, have also worsened in parts of Spain and France.

European Wildfires

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after a period of successive record-breaking heatwaves and little rain. Villages in France and Spain have been destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and holiday accommodation.

In France, a fire in the mountainous southeastern Var department, which had been brought under control three days ago, flared up again on Friday, sweeping across more than 1,000 hectares in six hours. Nearly 2,500 people were evacuated overnight, with firefighters bringing in reinforcements on Saturday when winds were expected to strengthen and complicate efforts to control the blaze.

Spain continued battling several wildfire hot spots on Saturday, two days after the government declared the end of a national emergency caused by huge fires in the country’s central provinces. Conditions worsened in the northern province of Leon, where a new blaze broke out on Friday night, another remained active and a third was evolving favorably, according to authorities.

Heat-Related Deaths

In Austria, the country’s Agency for Health and Food Safety reported a record 395 heat-related deaths for the month of June. Around half of the weather stations in Austria reported temperatures of at least 35 degrees Celsius during June, while 15 stations logged temperatures of 39 C or higher.

Earlier this week, the UK said an estimated 2,877 people in Britain had died from heat-related causes so far this year while France reported 5,764 excess deaths in the country between June 17 and July 2, and Germany’s RKI health body estimated 9,800 people had died so far this year linked to the high temperatures.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.