Fires continue to ravage Europe, with the situation improving slightly overnight in France and Spain, although the alert remains high, with fears of strong winds returning to fuel the blazes in some areas and a new wave of scorching heat affecting both countries.
On the fire front, Spain "sees the light at the end of the tunnel," Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said at a press conference at the Moncloa stadium. He noted that "at this time, eight large forest fires are still active" in the country and assured "the government's full understanding and support to those who remain confined or evacuated and remain in a situation of uncertainty."
"A significant increase in temperatures in the next few hours will make it more difficult to fight" the fire front, Sánchez warns, while his Interior Minister, Grande-Marlaska, assures that the most critical front of the fires, north of the San Juan Marshes toward the municipality of Valdemaqueda (Madrid), evacuated yesterday, has been brought "under control." Grande-Marlaska also explains that the massive fires in Ávila and Madrid are being treated as a single, vast front, although they have "intermittent connections and not a total and absolute convergence," and in total have burned over 70,000 hectares of vegetation.
Fires continue in Portugal as well: the most worrying situation overnight was in Rochoso, in the municipality of Guarda, where 310 firefighters continued to battle a blaze with three active fronts. In France, the mega-fire that has devastated 42,000 hectares in the Gironde department in the southwest of the country since July 22nd remains "stabilized" after a "quiet" night, but there too, temperatures are feared to rise to 33-35 degrees Celsius, accompanied by southeast winds and westerly ocean breezes along the coast.
This afternoon, the Gironde prefecture announced the "rekindling of several fires on the burned area, particularly in Lège/Grand Crohot and Marcheprime," the northern and southern edges of the mega-fire. "This testifies to the precariousness of the situation," commented Matthieu Jomain, commander of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service. The fires "rekindled 14 times today," noted Sophie Brocas, the prefect of the area, calling this a "very significant" figure, although the fire is still considered "stable."
