2026-07-29T11:54:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
官员表示，两名消防员周三在希腊克里特岛的一场山火扑救行动中遇难，而法国南部的消防员正全力扑灭一场大规模失控野火，过火面积已达到约巴黎的四倍。整个欧洲的消防员都在应对高温、干旱和强风组成的危险组合，这给灭火行动带来了极大阻碍。
克里特岛的此次死亡事件，为这场从大西洋沿岸延伸至东地中海的野火危机增添了新的致命色彩。在疏散行动的最高峰时期，法国和西班牙共有30万人被迫离开家园和度假胜地。
在法国吉伦特省，当局表示这场山火在平静的夜间没有蔓延。但据预报，气温将达到40摄氏度（即104华氏度），午后风力还会增强，这意味着此次喘息可能只是短暂的暂缓。
现场植被极度易燃，调查人员认为，尽管相关作业似乎符合规定，但高压线路附近的常规清 brush 作业可能引发了这场大火。
在莱格的指挥中心，消防员们俯身查看铺在汽车引擎盖上的地图，追踪三个危险区域：北角费雷特；马尔谢普里姆、塞斯塔和圣让达伊拉克周围的林木带；以及马尔蒂尼亚斯附近的一处军事基地，那里的大规模爆发迫使大量人员部署。
超过2200名消防员和20多架飞机仍在待命，得到了法国各地和欧洲伙伴支援队伍的支持。
“我们迅速出击，对任何新出现的烟柱重拳打击，”吉伦特省消防指挥官马蒂厄·若曼说道。
在指挥中心之外，平民也在尝试自行构筑防线。在苏热，志愿者们挤满了土路边缘，一名当地挖掘机驾驶员在仍在燃烧的土地上作业，试图在预计的西风到来前阻止火势回窜。在拉卡诺，居民们从湖中抽水，注入前往热点区域和消防员水箱的油罐车中。
“如果有一天我们这片区域发生火灾，我非常清楚这里所有的人都会为我们做同样的事，”33岁的弗拉维安·迪比什说道，他和父亲从圣埃米利翁驱车前来帮忙。
法国和西班牙的消防队员今年夏天一直在与肆虐的山火搏斗，两国总计迫使超过30万人疏散。在吉伦特省，上周末已有超过25万人被下令疏散，干燥的环境和强风开始让灭火工作变得复杂。当局表示，此次疏散令是二战以来规模最大的疏散行动之一。
本周最热的一天
朗德省和瓦尔省的大型山火蔓延势头已被遏制。法国内政部长洛朗·努涅斯表示，这使得吉伦特省成为法国目前仅剩的最大规模山火战场。
尽管自疏散行动以来已有数万人获准返回家园，但当局周三警告称，危险仍然存在。
吉伦特省大部分被烧毁的区域是松林和灌丛地，今年在连续的热浪下植被生长失控。西欧近几个月经历的极端高温会脱去植被中的水分，降低湿度，反过来导致草、灌木和落叶等森林碎屑作为燃料燃烧得更快。
波尔多检察官勒诺·戈多勒表示，调查人员认为，电网运营商Enedis的承包商在使用割灌机时，在高压线路附近作业引发了这场火灾。
法国气象局表示，周三将是本周最热、最干燥的一天，法国所有地区的野火风险都有所升高。干旱目前覆盖了法国本土和科西嘉岛，土壤湿度已接近2022年8月创下的纪录低点。
地区空气质量监测机构表示，吉伦特省和朗德省山火产生的烟雾也推高了这两个省的颗粒物污染水平。
吉伦特省当局周二下令又有4000人撤离大西洋沿岸的旅游景点，这可能是法国和平时期规模最大的疏散行动，范围还在进一步扩大。
“局势依然复杂，这一点很明确。我们还没有脱离险境，”吉伦特省省长索菲·布罗卡斯说道，她同时批准6万名疏散人员返回三个未受山火影响的波尔多郊区。
一边是数千人被要求离开海滨度假胜地，另一边则是其他人带着手机、打包好应急包返回家园，这一对比凸显了局势的不稳定。
这场 disruption 不仅影响了火灾区域，还波及了波尔多的旅游旺季。
爱德华·勒格里·德拉萨尔和兄弟共同经营着格兰德维尔迪酒庄，他表示官方呼吁游客避开该地区，威胁到了酒庄的葡萄酒旅游业。“他们怎么就没想到保护这个行业呢？”他告诉美联社。
吉伦特省的山火一度形成了黑色雷云，云内带电并被火光照亮，还引发了闪电、强风，并在原火线之外引发了新的火灾。这种火积云是法国有记录以来首次出现。
希腊消防部门表示，两名消防员周三在克里特岛雷西姆农地区的一场山火扑救中遇难。他们是约125名消防员中的成员，当时正在应对被强风助长的火势，部署了四架直升机和四架洒水飞机。
他们遇难的具体情况目前尚不清楚。消防部门表示，他们“为保护公民的生命和财产以及自然环境而殉职”。
西班牙数万人开始返家
在危机最严重的时候，法国和西班牙总计约33万人被迫离开家园和度假胜地。
在马德里和阿维拉附近的消防员取得进展后，西班牙中部地区的数万人开始返家。马德里地区约2万人的疏散令已解除，另有1.4万人的居家限制也已取消。
但在卡斯特利翁省，仍有1万人处于疏散令之下，该省的一场山火仍未得到控制，西班牙正准备迎接今夏的第四次热浪。
据法国内政部数据，今年法国全境已有超过1160平方公里（448平方英里）的土地被烧毁。
根据欧盟哥白尼气候变化服务中心的数据，欧洲是全球变暖速度最快的大陆，升温幅度是全球平均水平的两倍多。哥白尼中心表示，西欧经历了有记录以来最热的六月，极端高温和大范围干旱加剧了法国和西班牙山火的蔓延和强度。
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/wildfire-in-france-has-burned-an-area-four-times-the-size-of-paris/
2 firefighters die in Greece as crews in France fight massive blaze 4 times the size of Paris
2026-07-29T11:54:00-0400 / CBS/AP
Two firefighters died Wednesday while battling a blaze on the Greek island of Crete, officials said, while crews in southern France worked to extinguish a massive, uncontained wildfire that had spread to roughly four times the size of Paris. Across Europe, firefighters confronted a dangerous combination of high temperatures, drought and powerful winds, compromising containment efforts.
The deaths on Crete brought a fatal new dimension to a wildfire emergency stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean. At the peak of the evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain.
In France’s Gironde region, authorities said the blaze had not spread during a calm night. But temperatures forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and strengthening afternoon winds threatened to turn that respite into only a brief reprieve.
The landscape was so combustible that investigators believe routine brush-clearing work near a high-voltage line may have sparked the inferno, even though the work appeared to comply with regulations.
A De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 drops fire retardant over a forest near Saint-Jean-d’Illac, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. AP Photo/Emma Da Silva
At the command center in Lège, firefighters bent over maps spread across a car hood, tracking three danger zones: northern Cap-Ferret; the wooded corridor around Marcheprime, Cestas and Saint-Jean-d’Illac; and a military site near Martignas, where a major outbreak forced a large deployment.
More than 2,200 firefighters and over 20 aircraft remained mobilized, backed by crews from across France and European partners.
“We strike quickly and strike hard at any new smoke emissions,” Gironde fire commander Matthieu Jomain said.
Beyond the command center, civilians were trying to hold the line themselves. At Souge, volunteers flooded the edges of dirt tracks while a local digger driver plowed through still-burning soil, trying to keep flames from crossing back when the expected west wind arrived. In Lacanau, residents pumped water from a lake into tanks headed for hot spots and firefighters’ cisterns.
“If one day the fire starts in our neck of the woods, I know very well that all the people here would do the same for us,” said Flavien Dubuch, 33, who drove from Saint-Émilion with his father to help.
Fire crews in France and Spain have battled raging wildfires this summer, which collectively forced more than 300,000 people to evacuate between both countries. In Gironde, more than 250,000 were ordered to evacuate over the weekend, as dry conditions and strong winds began to complicate firefighting efforts. Authorities said the evacuation order was among the largest since World War II.
Hottest day this week
The advance of major fires in the Landes and Var regions has been halted. That left Gironde as France’s biggest remaining wildfire battle, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.
Although tens of thousands have been allowed to return home since the evacuation, authorities warned Wednesday that danger could still lie ahead.
Much of the area burned in Gironde is made up of pine forests and scrubland, which grew uncontrollably this year under successive heat waves. The extreme heat that western Europe has experienced in recent months removes moisture from vegetation and lowers humidity, which, in turn, causes grass, brush and forest debris like fallen branches and leaves to burn faster as fuel.
A fire burns in a forest near Claouey, during wildfires in southwestern France, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. AP Photo/Emma Da Silva
Investigators believe contractors working near a high-voltage line for power-grid operator Enedis ignited the blaze while using a brush-cutting machine, Bordeaux prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul said.
Météo-France said Wednesday would be the hottest and driest day of the week, with elevated wildfire danger across every region of France. Drought now covers mainland France and Corsica, with soils nearing the record dryness reached in August 2022.
Smoke from the Gironde and Landes fires also pushed particulate pollution higher across both departments, regional air-quality monitors said.
Gironde authorities ordered 4,000 more people out of tourist sites along the Atlantic coast on Tuesday, widening what may be France’s largest peacetime evacuation.
“The situation remains complicated. That’s clear. We’re not out of the woods,” said Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas, who also authorized 60,000 evacuees to return to three Bordeaux suburbs untouched by fire.
The opposing movements — thousands ordered out of coastal resorts as others returned with mobile phones on and emergency bags packed — captured how precarious the situation remains.
A car burned by a wildfire sits in Piedralaves, Spain, as the fire continues to spread, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. AP Photo/Manu Fernandez
The disruption was spreading beyond the burn zone into Bordeaux’s peak tourism season.
Edouard le Grix de la Salle, who runs Château du Grand Verdus with his brother, said official appeals to avoid the region threatened its wine-tourism trade. “How did they not think about protecting that sector?” he told The Associated Press.
At one point the Gironde blaze created a black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within, that generated lightning, violent winds and new fires beyond the original front. The pyrocumulonimbus was the first recorded in France.
Two firefighters died Wednesday while battling a wildfire in the Rethymno region of Crete, Greece’s fire department said. They were among about 125 firefighters confronting flames fanned by strong winds, with four helicopters and four water-dropping planes deployed.
The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear. The department said they died “in the line of duty to protect the lives and property of citizens and the natural environment.”
Tens of thousands begin returning home in Spain
At the height of the crisis, roughly 330,000 people were driven from homes and vacation sites across France and Spain.
Tens of thousands of people began returning home in central Spain after firefighters made progress around Madrid and Ávila. Evacuation orders were lifted for about 20,000 people in the Madrid region, while stay-at-home restrictions ended for another 14,000.
But 10,000 people remain under evacuation orders in Castellón, where a fire was still out of control as Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer.
More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, warming at more than twice the global average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in France and Spain, Copernicus said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/wildfire-in-france-has-burned-an-area-four-times-the-size-of-paris/