Strong winds and hot, dry weather hampered efforts to fight the huge fire burning through pine forests in Bordeaux, while fires also burned in Portugal, Spain, Greece, Hungary and Croatia. About 3,000 firefighters supported by water jets battled the blaze in southern France as they tried to save as many homes as possible. The fire season has hit parts of Europe earlier than usual this year after an unusually dry, hot spring left the ground parched – something authorities attribute to climate change. In pictures: Fires across Europe, droughts and breaking ice In Portugal, more than 1,000 firefighters worked alongside desperate civilians to save their homes on Saturday after a grueling week of battling blazes across the country. Wildfires have been fueled by extreme temperatures and drier conditions earlier than usual. A firefighter pilot died on Friday when his plane crashed while on an operation in the northeast of the country, the first fire death in Portugal this year. Image: Strong winds and hot, dry weather are frustrating the efforts of French firefighters to battle the blaze. Photo: AP Across the border, firefighters in Spain struggled to contain several blazes, including two that burned about 7,400 hectares of land. Around 3,000 people were evacuated from villages in southern Andalusia as a wildfire burned nearby. Read more: Portugal – Roads close, ‘terrifying’ fires and UK drought: Why ‘tropical nights’ could be deadly UK heatwave: COBRA meeting declared national emergency due to high temperatures For a sixth day, firefighters were also trying to bring under control a fire started by lightning in the west central district of Las Hurdes. “All the heatwaves studied so far in Europe are getting warmer,” said Robert Vautard of the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute at the Sorbonne University. “Until greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to zero, heat waves will continue to intensify, become more frequent and last longer.”
