Thousands more evacuated in France.
France has deployed more “water jet” planes and hundreds of other firefighters to fight the spreading fires that were being helped on Monday by winds from a heat wave that has gripped much of Europe.
As the winds changed direction, authorities in southwestern France announced plans to evacuate more towns and relocate 3,500 people at risk of being “in the path of raging flames.”
Three more water-dropping planes were joining six others already doing so repeatedly over flames and thick clouds of smoke, the Interior Ministry said Sunday night.
They said more than 200 reinforcements were also being added to the 1,500-strong force of firefighters battling day and night to contain the blaze through the dry pine forests of the Gironde region, which are also sending burning embers into the air, spreading further the flames.
Elsewhere, firefighters continued to battle blazes in France, Spain and Portugal on Sunday as Europe grappled with an extremely extreme heat wave that authorities in Madrid said had left hundreds dead.
Two huge fires, which have consumed pine forests for six days in southwestern France, forced an initial evacuation of about 14,000 people.
Some of the worst fires seen so far have been in Portugal, where the pilot of a firefighting plane died on Friday after his plane crashed during an operation in the northeast.
It was the first fire-related fatality in Portugal this year. The fires have injured more than 160 people this week and forced hundreds to evacuate.
While in Spain, firefighters supported by military brigades tried to put out more than 30 fires consuming forests spread across the country.
Spain’s National Defense Department said the “majority” of its firefighting planes were deployed to reach the flames, many of which are in rugged, hilly terrain that is difficult for ground crews to access.
Fire season has hit parts of Europe earlier than usual this year after an unusually dry spring, and authorities say climate change has played a role.
