Nearly 500 firefighters struggled to contain a large wildfire that threatened hillside suburbs outside Athens for a second day Wednesday, after hundreds of residents were evacuated overnight.
Fires continued to burn across southern Europe, but authorities in France, Spain and Portugal all reported improved conditions with a respite from severe heat wave conditions.At least two people were hospitalized in the Greek capital with breathing problems and minor burns, while local officials said several houses had been burned in the fire around Mount Penteli, 25 kilometers northeast of Athens.
Greece has avoided the heat wave that is currently afflicting countries in western Europe, but fire officials say that hot and dry conditions that have lasted for weeks, as well as longer-term temperature rises, have increased the overall risk of forest fires. Petteri Taalas, the Secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said more frequent and more extreme heat waves were an inevitable consequence of climate change. “In the future, these kinds of heat waves are going to be normal. We will see stronger extremes. We have pumped so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the negative trend will continue for decades,” Taalas said in a statement Tuesday. “I hope that this will be a wake-up call for governments.
In France, firefighters created huge firebreaks through threatened forests in the southwest of the country, using heavy machinery to tear out trees and roots to leave large barren strips to stop the fires from spreading. After a week of raging wildfires, the blazes have slowed.
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