More than 500 people were evacuated from their homes in Luglon after a new fire raced through woodlands overnight in France’s Landes region, as firefighters across Europe struggled against multiple blazes during a new wave of record-breaking heat on Friday. The regional administration said hundreds of firefighters were deployed to the area. The fire was one of several burning across France this week, while the country was experiencing its driest year ever.
Fortress Europe Burns
France’s driest-ever year and hottest-ever June and July have turned forests into tinder, and the state response has been the familiar one: evacuation, deployment, containment. A historic fire near Bordeaux last month pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes. This week, fires also scorched forests in normally cooler and wetter regions in the north and Brittany. Tourists stayed in Paris on Thursday as France entered the peak of its fifth heat wave of the summer. The numbers keep climbing. So do the costs, and the people forced to move.
In England, the same heat regime hit the West Midlands hard after the U.K. recorded its hottest day of the year on Thursday. Firefighters spent Friday tackling fires that led to thousands of emergency calls and forced people to flee burning homes. Nineteen people were hospitalized, the ambulance service said. In Stourbridge, where a huge blaze started Thursday, TV footage showed houses being consumed, with many left without roofs as flames burned inside charred walls. About 20 to 30 homes were completely destroyed, Stourbridge lawmaker Cat Eccles told the BBC. Jane Baxter, who was evacuated from her home in Stourbridge, said police knocked on her door and urged her to leave immediately. “They thought the fire was changing directions, and they didn’t know which direction it was going in,” she told BBC Radio. “So, it was literally ‘grab what you need and get out.’”
The State Arrives After the Fire
Simon Tuhill, chief fire officer of West Midlands Fire Service, said an investigation will be launched, but the fire was believed to have started in the grassland before spreading to homes nearby. The Met Office said 38.1C was recorded in west London on Thursday, the hottest day of the year. While temperatures cooled slightly on Friday, many parts of the country have seen little to no rain for weeks. This July has been the driest in England and Wales since records began in 1836. The weather agency can measure the heat. It can’t cool the roofs off the houses already gone.
Germany’s response showed another face of the same machinery. All 1,800 residents of the village of Gey in North Rhine-Westphalia were evacuated after a wildfire in the nearby Hürtgen forest threatened to reach their homes. Nearly 300 hectares of forest were ablaze on Friday morning, local authorities said. The fire advanced to within 300 meters of Gey, which sits on the edge of the forest near the Belgian border. Overnight, a shift in wind direction raised the risk that the flames could reach the village by morning, prompting officials to order the initial evacuation. Efforts to contain the blaze were complicated by unexploded World War II munitions. The cause remains unknown.
Croatia saw the same pattern of flight and emergency management. More than 1,000 people evacuated their homes after a fire raged overnight by the coastal town of Omis. Fourteen people were hospitalized, and seven remained in life-threatening condition early Friday. The fire erupted late Thursday in an Omis suburb and quickly spread because of strong wind. Public broadcaster HRT said the blaze came close to the town center, parts of Omis were left without electricity, and many cars burned. Croatian media published photos from a crowded sports hall where people crammed on beds and on the floor. Witnesses told HRT that people were jumping into the sea after boats also caught fire. Firefighters put out the blaze by Friday morning as other crews in planes headed further south toward the Peljesac peninsula, where another wildfire broke out overnight.
Heat, Drought, and the Nuclear Grid
Belgium was expected to hit 37C in Brussels on Friday after marking its hottest Aug. 13 on record, with a high of 32.6C on Thursday. It is going through its third heat wave of the summer, with fears about severe drought high and some water restrictions in place in certain towns. The Netherlands was also set to hit 37C, while authorities there have held off declaring a water crisis even as the country suffers from severe drought and water shortages in some areas.
France shut down six nuclear reactors in recent days because of extreme heat and drought — and because a mass of jellyfish washed up outside one power plant on the English Channel coast, utility company EDF said. Large numbers of jellyfish are appearing on many French beaches in connection with unusually warm sea temperatures. Water used to cool some French nuclear reactors is drawn from nearby rivers and then discharged back at a slightly higher temperature. France’s driest-ever year, along with its hottest-ever June and July, has left river levels low and river waters warmer than usual. Plant operators are obliged to halt activity if river temperatures get too high, according to EDF. The company said the shutdowns had minimal impact on France’s electricity production and that extreme weather poses no safety risks to the reactors themselves. It said the measures were taken “to protect flora and fauna.”
The language is tidy. The damage isn’t. Across France, England, Germany, Croatia, Albania, Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands, the same heat and drought are forcing evacuations, hospitalizations, shutdowns and water restrictions, while the institutions that manage the crisis keep counting, coordinating and explaining after the fact. The fire moves first. The paperwork follows.