As sweltering summer temperatures alerted authorities in certain regions of Europe, wildfires blazed in the southwest of France and Spain on Saturday, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.
By early Saturday morning, more than 12,200 residents in the Gironde region of France had been evacuated as more than 1,000 firefighters fought to douse the flames, according to a statement from the local government.
According to data from the Carlos III Health Institute, the nearly seven days-long heatwave is to blame for 360 deaths due to heat-related causes.
In recent weeks, wildfires have ravaged France as well as other European nations like Portugal and Spain. On Saturday, the Gironde area had roughly 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of land on fire, up from 7,300 hectares on Friday.
After several days of abnormally high temperatures that peaked at 45.7 degrees Celsius, firefighters were tackling a number of fires in neighboring Spain on Saturday (114 Fahrenheit). firefighters in Portugal, where temperatures decreased on Saturday across most of the nation after recently reaching a high of nearly 40 C (104 F).
According to data from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, wildfires destroyed a total of 39,550 hectares (98,000 acres) from the beginning of the year through mid-June, more than quadruple the amount of land destroyed by fires during the same time period previous year.
The heatwave between July 7 and July 13 claimed the lives of 238 people in Portugal, the majority of them were elderly persons with underlying medical issues.
For areas of England on Monday and Tuesday, the national meteorological service in Britain has issued its first red “severe heat” warning.