Parts of Europe burn as millions face record heat

Madrid: Wildfires burned in parts of Europe on Tuesday as millions of people across the continent struggled to adapt to the new reality: record summer heat.

Temperatures in some areas soared past 40 degrees Celsius.

Europe is warming faster than any other continent, at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Last year was the hottest year on record in Europe and globally, the monitoring agency said.

Scientists warn climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making parts of Europe more vulnerable to wildfires. The burning of fuels like gasoline, oil and coal release heat-trapping gasses that are the main driver of climate change.

Outside Madrid, firefighters had largely contained a blaze that broke out Monday night, authorities said. It killed a man who suffered burns on 98 per cent of his body, emergency services said.

Elsewhere, firefighters and nearly 1,000 soldiers were battling blazes in regions including Castile and Leon, Castile-La Mancha, Andalusia and Galicia. Thousands of people evacuated homes and hotels, including holiday-goers at beaches at the southern tip of Spain. Regional authorities said Tuesday afternoon that some of those evacuated from beach locations could return to their hotels.

In Portugal, more than 700 firefighters were working to control a fire in the municipality of Trancoso, about 350 kilometres northeast of Lisbon. Smaller fires were burning further north.

Firefighters largely brought a major wildfire in northwest Turkey under control, the forestry minister announced, a day after the blaze prompted hundreds of evacuations and led to the suspension of maritime traffic.

The blaze broke out on agricultural land in Canakkale province. Fanned by strong winds, it rapidly spread to a forested area, then to a residential one.