Wildfires Surge in Europe and Canada After Record Heat Waves
By Andy Hsueh/Irene Lin
Severe heat waves and prolonged drought are fueling a wave of destructive wildfires in Southern Europe and Canada. In Serbia, emergency crews and helicopters are cooling hotspots in a protected nature reserve, while firefighters in Spain clear brush to contain spreading flames. In Hungary, a forest blaze closed off a main highway near the capital Sofia while at least 200 residents and holidaymakers had to be evacuated near Italy's Lake Garda. Across the Atlantic, British Columbia has declared a state of emergency as the Bald Range wildfire expanded exponentially in hours, generating its own self-propagating weather system.
Firefighters rushing to put off the wildfire that had spread to a Serbian nature reserve...
The country is scrambling to contain the blaze amid extreme heat and drought in Europe this summer.
Three days since the fire started... Thick, dark smoke still covers much of its sky...
Helicopters and crews on the ground continue to cool down forest hotspots with water and extinguishers.
Neighboring Bulgaria has seen similar scenes this week, with a woodland blaze closing a main highway near the capital Sofia.
Meanwhile in Spain... firefighters there are starving the local wildfire by cutting branches and bushes...
Over three hundred people have been evacuated.
In Italy, aircraft joined ground crews to put out fires in the hills above Lake Garda.. Reports say at least 200 residents and holidaymakers have been evacuated.
And it’s not just in Europe... Canada's west coast is facing what's known as the bald range wildfire... Authorities in British Columbia have declared an emergency in the province.
Police stationed on highways to block people from heading toward the wildfire strip... while thousands of affected residents have been ordered to evacuate... some left their homes overnight.
LOCAL RESIDENT:
"The fire went from 50 hectares to 400 to 1,000 to 5,000, like within two or three hours. And what was once 15 kilometers away is now right here at the hill. And yeah, so now we're just getting our animals ready, and we're probably going to head back to Kelowna before the highway closes."
Officials said the wildfire has created the conditions for self-propagation...
DAVID EBY, PREMIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA:
"The category five and six, fires. The terminology they use but it basically means that there's just, the fire goes across the top of the trees. He described, flames, on 100ft tree, flames going 200ft above that. And, the fire creating its own weather system, which creates lightning, which then feeds on itself."
Climatologists have observed the hottest temperatures in Europe and North America since May... when on-and-off heat waves swept through these regions.
