Europe Faces 'Worst-Ever' Wildfires Amid 40°C Heatwave

[Anchor]

Europe, suffering from a deadly heatwave, is now locked in a desperate battle against wildfires. Warnings that such disasters would become an annual reality due to climate change are now becoming a grim reality.

Correspondent Kwon Yeongin reports from the scene.

[Reporter]

Red flames are spreading, seemingly swallowing vast forests.

Firefighters are working through the night to extinguish the blazes, but they appear overwhelmed.

In Spain, where wildfires in the Andalusia region last week left 12 residents dead and 7 missing, another fire has broken out in the Aragon region, destroying over 4,000 hectares in just two days.

The Gard department in southern France is also suffering severe wildfire damage.

Where the fire has swept through, cars are left as charred skeletons, and in the ash-covered forest, only pinecones hanging from branch tips remain as evidence that this was once a pine forest.

In this area, an area the size of 200 soccer fields was burned in just a single day last week.

On the ground, you can see the remains of snail shells scattered everywhere, left behind by the fire.

[Marie / Resident of Gard: I saw the wildfire smoke approaching and called my neighbors. Of course, we were in a state of panic, but I thought we had to protect each other.]

Two houses were burned, and there was significant damage to crops such as grapes and olives.

This place was originally a vineyard for winemaking.

However, as you can see, this large vineyard, which is easily larger than a soccer field, has been completely burned, leaving not a single grapevine behind.

Near the Spanish border, highways and railways were closed, and 10,000 residents were forced to evacuate.

[Mayor of the Zaragoza/Gard region: At one point, we had to control the entire village, and we decided to isolate the residents from the outside and impose a lockdown measure restricting all residents from leaving the village.]

With severe drought persisting, a total of 170,000 hectares—an area 2.8 times the size of Seoul—has been burned across Europe as of mid-July.

In particular, Europe, which was hit by a heatwave exceeding 40°C (104°F) this summer, has seen over 10,000 excess deaths, and forecasts suggest that the scale of damage will continue to grow every year due to climate change.

(Video reporting: Kim Si-nae, Video editing: Kim Byeong-jik)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.