Hellish heat in European resorts and a complete lack of precipitation led to the fact that almost the entire Mediterranean caught fire – forest fires engulfed France, Spain, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, and Turkey, which was already affected by the fire last year. Tourists are being evacuated by the thousands – in France alone, 16,000 forced migrants have been recorded, and we are talking about the most touristic places. Meteorologists’ forecasts, meanwhile, are not encouraging – neither in the short-term nor in the long-term.
Heat waves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer due to anthropogenic climate change, they say. The world has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees on average since the beginning of the industrial era, and temperatures will continue to rise. As a result, the summer season may soon disappear as a class – the infernal heat will survive the tourists from the resorts, unless, of course, the fires finish them off sooner. This is a long-term apocalyptic forecast. As for the near future, so far in Europe, the average temperature is storming the border of +40 degrees, and the record set in Portugal was +47.
The consequences are obvious – there is fire everywhere, and tourists have to flee. So, more than 16,000 people were evacuated in France. Only in the French Gironde, a popular tourist region, all tourists were evacuated from hotels and campsites – more than 6,000 thousand people. The staff had to be evacuated later.
In southern Spain, more than 3,200 people fled fires in the Mijas hills outside Malaga, a popular tourist area. Forest fires also broke out in the provinces of Castile and Leon, Galicia, and Extremadura. “We just grabbed a few essentials and just ran, and at that moment everyone on the street was moving… there were a lot of ambulances and fire engines,” one tourist who escaped in Malaga told local media.
It is not easier in other regions of the Mediterranean. In Crete, Greek firefighters battle a large blaze in the Rethymno region on the southern coast until the fire is partially contained. In Croatia, forests are burning near the Croatian resort cities of Zadar and Šibenik, in the last case the fire even reached the city, destroying several cars, the church building was also damaged, and the resort was rescued by fire helicopters.
In Portugal, fires have destroyed 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) of land this year, mostly in the north. This is the worst fire damage since the summer of 2017 when devastating fires killed around 100 people. At the same time, even the most fashionable resorts are under attack – yes, in Portugal. in the southern Algarve region popular with tourists, a fire broke out in the city of Faro, the fires encroached on the luxury area of Quinta do Lago. Videos of the fire engulfing golf courses and videos of panicked tourists desperately trying to escape the impending inferno in their cars are circulating on local social media.
Former Dragons Den star Duncan Bannatyne, 73, tweeted that he and his family had been forced to leave their home after flames spread through the resort: “Terrible day in the Algarve today. We survived, but it was scary. We survived, but we had to flee our home. Today was a hellish day in the Algarve.”
In addition, Turkey is also under attack: Turkey’s Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) said that around 450 houses and 3,530 people had been evacuated. While it is true that fires mostly occur in mountainous areas, however, as last year showed, they descend very quickly on the coast. The City Hall of the resort province of Mugla has already reported that the fire affected 17 houses and 728 hectares of land. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca also said 19 people were injured in the fire, and nine of them were still being treated as of Thursday morning. More than 30 units of aerial firefighting equipment were involved in extinguishing the fire. So the resorts of Turkey seriously fear a repeat of last year’s hell.