French firefighters are battling a huge blaze in a forest just south of Paris as a devastating heatwave sweeps across Europe, causing deadly damage.
More than 3 square miles (800 hectares) of the Fontainebleau Forest has burned and firefighting aircraft are pumping water from the Seine River as part of efforts to contain the blaze, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported on Monday.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told reporters that police were investigating whether the fire was intentionally started. Nuñez said in a post on Sunday’s X that wildfires were also burning in other parts of the country.
Wildfires are not uncommon in Europe, but the climate crisis is making the country hotter and drier, leading to more intense fire seasons. They have occurred earlier this year and are increasing in intensity.
In much of France and Spain, an unusually wet winter wiped out much of the plant life, which quickly died as three consecutive heatwaves pushed temperatures into the low 30s Celsius.
According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), this has led to a sharp rise in the number of large fires.
Extreme heat is also causing excess mortality. More than 2,000 people died in France due to the heat in the last week of June. France recorded its hottest day on record on June 24th.
France’s Health Minister Stéphanie List said the number of deaths in the last week of June was 29% higher than the previous week, with a “clear increase” in deaths among people aged 45 and over.
And this trend is likely to continue in the coming years, as Europe is the world’s warmest continent, with temperatures rising more than twice as fast as the global average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Agency.
Ten people are still missing in Spain after a fire killed 13 people in the country’s south last week, the Associated Press reported.
Also, more than 2,700 people in England and Wales are believed to have died from heat-related causes during the May and June heatwave, Britain’s national weather bureau, the Met Office, said on Monday.
The number of drownings is also rapidly increasing due to the heat. At least 99 people drowned in Germany in June, the highest monthly death toll since 2003.
