Fires in Spain have devastated thousands of acres of land and forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes amid a scorching heat across Europe. Some of the fires continue to burn, with firefighters working to extinguish the flames that have destroyed about 49,000 acres, according to the Castile and Leon regional government. On Friday, the World Meteorological Organization warned that the whole of Spain was in “extreme danger of fire” due to the heat and drought. The early heatwave broke some records in Spain, with Valencia Airport setting a record in June on Friday, hitting a temperature of 102 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) and surpassing the record set in 2017. In Madrid, temperatures rose to around 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius) in what the State Meteorological Service said was the first major heatwave in more than four decades. “What we are seeing today is unfortunately a foretaste of the future,” Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization, told the Independent at the weekend, warning that early heat waves were being driven by climate change. Johan Rockström, director of the government-funded Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, called the scenes in Europe “the new normal” on Twitter and warned that extreme weather would only worsen if global emissions were not reduced. What you need to know about how fires spread The Sierra de la Culebra, a mountain range in Castile and Leon in northwestern Spain, was one of the most devastated areas, with a workers’ union calling the forest fire a “real monster” as it formed a towering orange wall along what once was a green landscape. On Monday, emergency planes poured water on rural land in the west of the country to stop the blaze, as forest fires continued to burn in areas such as Navarre and Catalonia, Reuters reported. Hundreds of firefighters are working in various areas, including Zamora in the northwest, and Valencia in the southeast to put out the blaze. Officials in Catalonia, in the northeast, said at the weekend that emergency services were trying to contain more than 30 fires, the Guardian reported. The heat wave of Europe also hit France and a warning was issued in Britain by the Health Insurance Service, as the country recorded the hottest day of the year. Temperatures in London exceeded 89 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) because of what experts said was a blast of hot air from North Africa. Heat wave breaks record in France, kills baby birds in Spain
