Greece, Spain, Turkey and Albania battle blazes amid heatwave

Residents of four villages were evacuated in central Albania near a former army ammunition depot. In the southern Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried World War II-era artillery shells. Authorities said dozens of homes were gutted in a central region of the country.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed condolences after the death of a firefighting volunteer in the hard-hit Castile and León region north of the capital, Madrid, where thousands have been displaced by evacuations.

“The wildfire situation remains serious, and taking extra precautions is essential,” Sánchez wrote in an online post. “Thank you, once again, to all those working tirelessly to fight the flames.”

Evacuation centres were filled to capacity in parts of central Spain, with some spending the night outdoors on folding beds. The most severe fires pushed northward into more rural areas, where some residents hosed the walls of their homes to try and protect them from fire.

Services along a high-speed rail link between Madrid and the northwestern Galicia region were suspended after fires got close to some sections of the tracks, state rail company Renfe said.

In Turkey, a forestry worker was killed on Wednesday while responding to a wildfire in a southern region, officials said. The Forestry Ministry said the worker died in an accident involving a fire truck that left four others injured.

Turkey has been battling severe wildfires since late June. A total of 18 people have been killed, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers who died in July.

In France, which is recovering from massive recent fires in the southern regions, temperatures of up to 42 degrees were expected for the third consecutive day. Officials issued weather alerts giving local authorities discretion to cancel public events and cordon off areas with high fire risks.

Authorities across European countries have cited numerous causes for the massive fires, including careless farming practices, improperly maintained power cables and summer lightning storms.

Law enforcement officials in North Macedonia also cited indications of arson, motivated by rogue developers. Firefighters struggled to contain a blaze at a nature reserve outside the capital, Skopje, on Wednesday.

The European Union has rushed aid to fire-hit countries, including non-member states, with ground crews and water-dropping aircraft. Much of the recent effort was concentrated on Montenegro, where major wildfires continued to burn in rugged areas near the capital, Podgorica.

“Natural disasters know no borders,” said Ljuban Tmusic, head of Montenegro’s civil protection agency. “In Montenegro, the resources we have … are clearly not enough.”

AP

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