France and Spain continued to battle with the worst wildfires in living memory as Western Europe braced for new heatwaves.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said that a forest fire in the southwest had been “contained” as the bigger one near Bordeaux continued to rage.
He warned that the coming weeks would be “tough and we have to hold out.” Macron even said that the country is battling with the “most severe” circumstances since World War II.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the fires "the most painful expression of a climate emergency."
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska also noted that the coming hours would be “absolutely decisive" to contain the blaze in the west of the capital, Madrid.
The wildfires have ripped through hundreds of hectares of woodland, destroyed properties, and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.
Europe is enduring a ‘firewave’
Fire authorities in France said that the wildfires in the southwestern part are so extreme that they have created their own weather of fire clouds, or “pyrocumulonimbus,” gigantic clouds that are formed by particularly intense wildfires.
Very large wildfires cause heat to surge into the air above, making it lighter and allowing it to rapidly rise into the cooler atmosphere above. As it rises, the air cools and can condense into towering thunderstorm clouds that are able to generate their own weather: producing rain, wind, and even lightning.
Scientists have also warned that Europe could face a climate crisis due to the unprecedented number of destructive wildfires.
Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London, explained, “The connection with this summer’s repeated heatwaves is strong. Prolonged periods of hot, dry weather leave vegetation unusually dry and therefore much more flammable.”
“When an ignition occurs under these conditions, a wildfire can escalate rapidly. This is precisely why we coined the term 'firewave.' This is the wildfire equivalent of a heatwave: a period of exceptionally high wildfire activity that overwhelms the emergency response of a city, region, or nation,” he added.
Rein emphasized that not every wildfire can be contained by firefighters, urging, "We need to move beyond reacting to disasters and start building wildfire protection before the next firewave arrives.”
How long will European wildfire continue to burn?
A European Commission official said the wildfire season had begun in April and could last until early November.
The European commissioner for crisis response, Hadja Lahbib, has said it is likely the damage from wildfires will exceed previous records.
