Aside from healthcare having extra high preparedness due to the heat in large parts of Europe, rescue services are also on standby. Warnings of fire hazards have been issued in several places, and the wildfires that are raging are particularly difficult to handle due to high temperatures and wind.
Wildfires have broken out in, among other places, Greece, Italy, and France. In the Turkish city of Izmir, tens of buildings have burned down in a fire that started in a forest area and spread quickly with winds of 35 meters per second, Governor Suleyman Elban announced on Sunday. Five residential areas were evacuated and smoke and ash from the Turkish fire have – with the help of the strong winds – crossed the sea and darkened the sky over the Greek island of Patmos.
Firefighting planes and aircraft
Heatwaves are having increasingly major consequences due to climate change.
The heatwaves in the Mediterranean region have become more frequent and intense in recent years, says Emanuela Piervitali at the Italian research institute Ispra, to AFP.
A further increase in temperatures and extreme heatwaves is expected in the future, so we must get used to temperatures with peaks that are even higher than those we are experiencing now.
EU countries that are usually hard hit by wildfires during the summer can, to some extent, receive help from coordinated efforts from the EU, but it also requires that they prepare themselves on their own. Firebreaks have been created in several places and firefighting teams, aircraft, helicopters, as well as advisory and evaluation teams have been deployed.
Highest preparedness
In Portugal – where two-thirds of the country over the weekend were put on high alert for extreme heat and wildfires – over 14,000 people, 3,000 vehicles, and 70 aircraft have been mobilized for the summer of 2025, reports the news agency cooperation European Newsroom (ENR).
The number of wildfires that cover over 30 hectares of land has tripled in the EU between 2006 and 2024, according to a report from the European Court of Auditors ECA. In recent years, it has been about an average of nearly 1,900 such wildfires annually.
96 percent of wildfires in the EU are caused, according to a report from the EU Commission last year, by human negligence or deliberate actions.
