Wildfire forces evacuations in Crete amid European heatwave

Officials said a forest fire fanned by gale force winds in the Greek holiday island of Crete has led to the evacuation of locals and tourists. Greece is in the midst of a heatwave that is searing large chunks of Europe. It has become particularly vulnerable in recent years to summer fires fuelled by strong winds, drought and high temperatures linked to climate change.

Local media said around 1,500 people had to be evacuated following the blaze, which broke out yesterday evening. \"Evacuations took place in numerous hotels and tourists were safely transferred to a closed gymnasium in the municipality of Ierapetra,\" said vice-prefect Yannis Androulakis, referring to a city in the southeast. \"At the moment, there are three active fronts. Due to the strong winds, the fire has progressed quite rapidly,\" Mr Androulakis said.

Around 270 firefighters, 10 helicopters and drones have been deployed to fight the fire near the city of Ierapetra, said Vassilios Vathrakoyannis, a spokesman for the firefighting service. \"There are still a number of different fronts... The winds are very strong - up nine on the Beaufort scale,\" he said.

The heatwave across Europe this week broke high temperature records, caused the closure of schools and increased the risk of fire. Authorities in Spain's Catalonia region on Tuesday confined about 14,000 people to their homes due to two wildfires that broke out almost simultaneously in the province of Lerida. In one of the blazes, near the city of Cosco, \"two people were found lifeless by firefighters\", the fire and emergency service said in a statement.

The exact cause of the fire was unclear, but the service said the recent heat, dry conditions and strong winds caused by storms had increased the intensity of the flames. Hours earlier, police in the region had reported the death of a two-year-old boy after he was left in a parked car in the sun for several hours.

Spain is in the midst of an intense heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 40C in many places and several heat records set for the month of June. One person died in the southern city of Cordoba and another in Barcelona, both while doing road work on Saturday and likely victims of heatstroke. According to scientists, extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and storms, are becoming more intense due to man-made climate change.

According to the source: RTE.ie.