Fires have devastated more than 42,000 acres of land - an area more than twice the size of Manhattan - across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece, with temperatures predicted to reach 40C in places.
Firefighters and others are silhouetted in front of a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (Photo: AP/Giannis Papanikos)
06 Jul 2026 01:06AM
BARCELONA: Hundreds of firefighters across southern Europe on Sunday (July 5) battled wildfires that sent residents fleeing their homes in the middle of the night and threatened to disrupt a stage of the Tour de France cycling race, as temperatures rose again in the heatwave-scarred region. The infernos have devastated more than 42,000 acres of land - an area more than twice the size of Manhattan - across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece, with temperatures predicted to reach 40C in places."We started seeing smoke around 10:30 pm, then it kept coming closer and closer. Someone from the town hall knocked on our door around 1:00 am to tell us to leave," said Charlotte Pignol, 30, who was evacuated from her home in southern France near the city of Perpignan."There were fire trucks everywhere, and the smell of smoke was overwhelming," she said.
