A forest fire raging in northern Portugal for two days has injured four people, the fire service said today, as the country battled a third day of intense heat with temperatures in some districts predicted to reach 44C.
A civil protection spokesman said that more than 900 firefighters were battling the blaze that started on Wednesday in Vouzela, Viseu district, reports RTE.
Three firefighters and a civilian had suffered burns, the spokesman added.
Hundreds of emergency services were also fighting three other fires in northern Portugal, reports RTE.
The government has ordered special measures including barring access to forests and restricting the use of some types of machinery in rural areas.
An area of Europe with 410 million people — more than two-thirds of the continent’s population — experienced temperatures over 35C at least once during the 15 to 30 June heatwave, according to an AFP analysis, reports RTE.
Belgium recorded 39% more deaths than normal between 18 and 29 June, health authorities said today.
The country saw 1,222 excess deaths during the period, of which nearly half were people aged 85 or over, according to provisional data from the federal health ministry, reports RTE.
“Such a level of excess mortality during a heatwave is unprecedented in our country,” it said in a statement, noting that Belgium had recorded “seven tropical days of temperatures exceeding 30C” as well as “abnormally” warm nights.
The peak in excess mortality was reached on Saturday 27 June, reports RTE.
The previous day, most of the country had been placed under orange or red heat alerts, prompting authorities to cancel a series of events including a re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo.
While Belgium did not officially break its June temperature records, readings hit 35C in Brussels for several consecutive days and climbed locally to between 38C and 40C, reports RTE.
France endured a rise of nearly 30% in the number of deaths recorded during the week of 22 June, the peak of a record-breaking heatwave, its public health authority said today.
Public Health France said there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week” while noting the figure was probably “an underestimate,” reports RTE.
The number of deaths increased by 62% in the Paris region during the week starting 22 June, the report said, with a similar spike reported in the Pays de la Loire region.
Nicolas Revel, director general of the Paris public hospital system, said he expected the death toll from the June heatwave to be lower than that of 2003 but “probably” higher than an episode last year that claimed 5,700 lives, reports RTE.
Some French politicians denounced what they described as the authorities’ inadequate measures to help France face rising temperatures, with the Greens filing a no-confidence motion against the government of Sébastien Lecornu.
Mr Lecornu said that “climatic events” had contributed to “fairly severe” and unusually early forest fires, reports RTE.
“We must acknowledge that they are occurring roughly 15 days to three weeks earlier than the usual periods,” he said at a crisis meeting in the southern city of Marseille.
He said that 7,000 wildfires had been recorded since the start of the season, with 8,700 hectares already destroyed by the flames, reports RTE.
The intensity and early onset of the fires would require “a great deal of endurance” from both authorities and firefighters, the prime minister added.
About 2,000 firefighters, including volunteers and military personnel, were mobilised on Wednesday and Thursday, reports RTE.
The largest wildfire recorded, which broke out Wednesday in the departments of Aude and Herault, kept spreading fanned by the wind, having already scorched about 900 hectares.
Weather conditions remained unfavourable with wind gusts reaching 70km per hour and continuing to strengthen, officials said, reports RTE.
Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated in southwestern France due to wildfires.
Tourists and local residents had to be moved after a wildfire broke out in the town of Sainte-Marie-la-Mer and spread to Canet-en-Roussillon, reports RTE.
The fire that started at a campsite destroyed dozens of mobile homes before spreading to the marina area, where thick toxic smoke blanketed the boats.
Firefighters said nearly 3,000 people were evacuated, with half of them from three campsites in the affected area, reports RTE.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, said Pierre Regnault de La Mothe, the top regional official for the department of Pyrenees-Orientales.
Two hundred firefighters and four water-bombing helicopters were deployed to put out the blazes, reports RTE.
Apart from having “major impacts” on human health, ecosystems, agriculture and infrastructure, the extraordinary heatwave worsened the risk of wildfires, the World Meteorological Organisation said, reports RTE.
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