It's Climate Change I tell'ya!! IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE!!

[spaminator]

France evacuates thousands of tourists as fire rages in pine forest
No casualties had been reported or homes destroyed so far

Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Pierre Pratabuy and Jean Decotte
Published Jul 23, 2026 • 2 minute read

Skies in the coastal village of Le Porge in southwestern France were orange on Thursday morning.
Skies in the coastal village of Le Porge in southwestern France were orange on Thursday morning. Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU /AFP

LE PORGE — Smoke rose from crackling pine trees Thursday as a wildfire gained ground on the coast of southwestern France, forcing more than 10,000 tourists to evacuate camping sites and other holiday accommodation.


France has been battered by three heatwaves since May as part of increasingly common extreme weather episodes linked to climate change, causing excess deaths, drying up rivers and fuelling wildfires.

The blaze in Le Porge, just south of Medoc wine country, had ripped through 2,400 hectares — an area twice the size of London’s Heathrow airport — since Wednesday, firefighters said.

No casualties had been reported or homes destroyed so far, they added.

Skies in the coastal village of Le Porge, near the city of Bordeaux, were orange early on Thursday morning.

Wisps of smoke rose from charred or crackling tree trunks between Le Porge and the village of Lege-Cap-Ferret to the south, AFP journalists said.

Helicopters made repeated runs over houses with shuttered windows, as fire trucks rushed up and down the road.


Patrick Martineau, 69, was among 12,000 people — tourists, as well as hundreds of residents living on the edge of the forest — who had to evacuate.

“Police came banging on the doors of all homes,” he said.

“It’s a bit scary, hard to take in,” he added.

“When we bought a home here, we never thought there would be a fire risk.”

– ‘Particularly dry’ –
Some 700 firefighters have been battling the flames on land, while several firefighting planes have been dumping water from the sky since the blaze erupted around midday on Wednesday.

It then roared through the dense woodland, with flames soaring to 10 metres in some areas.

The fire spread rapidly on Wednesday. (ROMAIN PERROCHEAU/AFP)
The fire spread rapidly on Wednesday. (ROMAIN PERROCHEAU/AFP) Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU /AFP
“We saw a huge cloud of black smoke spreading across the sky in the middle of the afternoon,” Julie Leonard, a holiday maker from Bordeaux, told AFP on Wednesday.

Le Porge mayor Martial Zaninetti and a resident said the fire appeared to have been started by a brush-clearing machine.

Police were looking into an accident that ignited the blaze.

Bernard Roche, a 75-year-old former lifeguard, evacuated his cabin in the woods on Wednesday.


“The forest has been particularly dry these past few days,” he said.

Fires in 2022 damaged 30,000 hectares of the same forest, forcing some 50,000 people to be evacuated.

The wildfire is just the latest in France in recent weeks.

In southern France, a fire in the area of Ponteves northeast of the city of Marseille had stabilised on Thursday after ripping through 2,500 hectares and destroying 10 houses, officials there said.

Roaring flames devastated a tenth of the UNESCO-listed Fontainebleau forest outside Paris, in a rare such fire so far north.

Of the 53 heatwaves recorded nationwide since 1947 until late June, half have occurred since 2010, according to national met office Meteo-France.

France evacuates thousands of tourists as fire rages in pine forest

No casualties had been reported or homes destroyed so far

torontosun.com

 

[Dixie Cup]

I remember the 1972 snowfall , was drinking with a perspective girlfriend downtown at the Georgia I believe . We left and I made a mistake at Kingsway and Victoria . We walked home and I went back the next day and picked up the car . And no I didn’t get lucky .

I lived in Vancouver in 1973 & on New Years Eve; my roommate & I ended up having to get a hotel room because the taxis weren't running the streets were so bad. In 1977, my hubby & I took our honeymoon down thru the states & up thru Washington into B.C. (We lived in Manitoba at the time). We stayed at my former roommates' parents' house & they lived in N. Van. When we woke up the next morning, there had been a bad snowstorm & we didn't have winter tires on our car. So, we had to go looking to purchase tires & hubby found a place. We had to go down this hill - the roads were horrible & very slippery. A taxi decided that the car in front of him, going up this hill, was too slow (the car was basically spinning up the hill) so he passed it, heading directly towards us. My hubby just ragged on the wheel, turning us to the right & by some miracle, he hit a driveway which no one could even see that there was one there due to bushes & trees. (Angel on our shoulders??). So, the taxi missed us. Hubby was furious but didn't have the time to get out & get a number. But if we hadn't done that, it would have been a head-on collision. Seems B.C. drivers think they're immortal (having had an accident caused by one a couple of years ago).

 

[Taxslave2]

“This could be the precursor to the loss of humans,” he said.

Not seeing a problem with this. The whole article is an exact opposite of what I read a few weeks ago about the Great Barrier Reef making a comeback.

 

[Taxslave2]

I lived in Vancouver in 1973 & on New Years Eve; my roommate & I ended up having to get a hotel room because the taxis weren't running the streets were so bad. In 1977, my hubby & I took our honeymoon down thru the states & up thru Washington into B.C. (We lived in Manitoba at the time). We stayed at my former roommates' parents' house & they lived in N. Van. When we woke up the next morning, there had been a bad snowstorm & we didn't have winter tires on our car. So, we had to go looking to purchase tires & hubby found a place. We had to go down this hill - the roads were horrible & very slippery. A taxi decided that the car in front of him, going up this hill, was too slow (the car was basically spinning up the hill) so he passed it, heading directly towards us. My hubby just ragged on the wheel, turning us to the right & by some miracle, he hit a driveway which no one could even see that there was one there due to bushes & trees. (Angel on our shoulders??). So, the taxi missed us. Hubby was furious but didn't have the time to get out & get a number. But if we hadn't done that, it would have been a head-on collision. Seems B.C. drivers think they're immortal (having had an accident caused by one a couple of years ago).

Most probably the taxi driver's first winter on the coast. Despite the bragging about their driving abilities, people from the East of Hope do not do well in our snow.

 

[spaminator]

Spain races to contain blazes before temperatures rise
The fires have been feeding on forests left tinder-dry by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.

Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Published Jul 27, 2026 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 3 minute read

A plane dumps water over a wildfire burning west of Madrid on July 26, 2026. Photo by Cesar MANSO /AFP

Madrid (AFP) — Spain faces two crucial days to bring raging wildfires under control before weather conditions worsen, authorities said Monday, though they were making some progress and planned to start returning evacuees to certain areas.


The wildfires that broke out in forested areas around the Spanish capital at the height of the summer holidays have forced some 60,000 people to flee their homes, often with just minutes’ notice, leaving pets and medicine behind.

“You run to save what you can and then you turn to defend” against the fire, said Karim Benali, 39, a volunteer who spoke to AFP on a road near Navaluenga, west of Madrid.

“There were some 48 homes here, they burned,” he said, surrounded by charred earth and trees blanketed with a persistent smell of smoke.

The fires have been feeding on forests left tinder-dry by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.

Overnight, lower temperatures, weaker winds and higher air humidity helped make progress against the blazes west of the capital, the Madrid regional government said.


The flames have “slowed their advance” during the night, it said, urging residents to remain “extremely cautious”.

“The situation has improved slightly, but the fire is still active,” it said.

But with humidity levels set to drop and temperatures soar across Spain, hitting 40C in the centre and south according to meteorological agency AEMET, firefighters face a small window of opportunity.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters on Monday that “today and tomorrow are absolutely decisive days” to control the fires, “because from Wednesday the weather forecasts become highly unfavourable for firefighting efforts”.

A burned car is pictured west of Madrid, on July 26, 2026.
A burned car is pictured west of Madrid, on July 26, 2026. Photo by Oscar DEL POZO /AFP
“The next two days will not bring the most favourable conditions, nor the ones we would have wanted, but they are two days in which we can take the initiative, make progress, and work towards controlling and containing the blaze.”

AEMET said that from Tuesday onwards the fire risk would “surge to very high or extreme levels across almost the entire country.”


“This situation will persist, or may even worsen, in the following days,” it added.

– ‘Lost everything’ –
Maria Angeles Canete fought back tears as she looked around the desolation that used to be her home at a campsite near Navaluenga, after authorities said they would allow people to return to some evacuated places.

“We lost everything,” she said. “We had this campsite, we had another one, and we’ve lost it all. We have nothing.”

Madrid regional authorities said on Monday they were planning to restore the bus service between Madrid and the Villamanta area close to the fires, and allow farmers to return to feed their animals.

Scientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez directly blamed global warming on Monday, describing the fires as “the most painful expression of a climate emergency”.

“This is no longer an exception, this is a rule itself,” he added during a meeting in Madrid.

Sanchez is due to visit a fire-hit area in Valencia, in the east of the country where firefighters are battling a separate blaze and 15,000 people have been evacuated.

The fires in the Iberian country have affected an area of 77,000 hectares (190,271 acres) — nearly the size of New York City — according to the authorities.

Since the start of the year, fires in Spain have ravaged 150,000 hectares and killed 13 people, according to Sanchez.

Spain races to contain blazes before temperatures rise

The fires have been feeding on forests left tinder-dry by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

France and Spain race to contain fires before new heat wave
European neighbours battling worst wildfires in living memory, which have ripped through hundreds of hectares

Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Published Jul 27, 2026 • 4 minute read

France's President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the press.
France's President Emmanuel Macron, centre, speaks to the press next to France's Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, left,, Prefect of Gironde region Sophie Brocas, second from right, and SDIS 33 Fire and Rescue Service Departemental director Marc Vermeulen, right after a visit to the departmental fire and rescue operational center (CODIS) in Bordeaux, following wildfires in the area, southwestern France, on July 27, 2026. Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / POOL /AFP via Getty Images
NAVALUENGA, Spain — French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said one forest fire in southwest France had been “contained” even as another much bigger one near Bordeaux continued to rage and western Europe braced for new heat waves this week.


France and Spain are battling the worst wildfires in living memory, which have ripped through hundreds of hectares of woodland, destroying properties and forcing evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people.


The return of searing temperatures, from Tuesday in France and from Wednesday in Spain, threaten to complicate firefighting efforts.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the coming hours would be “absolutely decisive” to bring fires burning west of the capital Madrid under control.

Macron, on a visit to a crisis centre in the winemaking capital of Bordeaux, said: “The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.”

That southwestern city in the Gironde region lies just a short distance from a vast and turbulent wildfire that is creating its own winds and sparking fresh blazes around it.

That unchecked, gigantic blaze — which has created a rare pyrocumulonimbus cloud packing lightning — has over the past six days ravaged 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres), forced 220,000 people to flee and destroyed 240 houses.


Macron said a smaller fire in the adjoining Landes — which had nonetheless forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people — was “contained.” But he warned it “remains virulent and we must be extremely cautious over the next few hours and the coming days”.

This was due to the “conditions of climate change in which we will live,” he said.

‘Lost everything’
In Spain, where blazes were burning west of Madrid, some 60,000 people have also been evacuated.

At a sports hall just outside Madrid, displaced people sprawled on camp beds, held their heads in their hands and comforted pets.

Maria Angeles Canete fought back tears as she looked around the desolation that used to be her campsite near Navaluenga, west of the capital.

“We lost everything,” she said. “We had this campsite, we had another one and we’ve lost it all. We have nothing.”

The European Union on Monday announced more water-bombing planes were being sent to France, in addition to those already deployed to Spain.


But EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib told AFP that its fleet was increasingly stretched due to fears they may soon be needed elsewhere.

“Extreme conditions are looming for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, in addition to France, the Iberian Peninsula … where the situation is expected to worsen, including in Portugal starting today,” Lahbib said.

Devastation
The scale of the devastation from the fires is vast in the worst-affected areas.

Pine trees smouldered with blackened trunks and smoke rose from charred forests with the burnt-out husks of cars and houses reduced to shells, AFP reporters said.

“You run to save what you can and then you turn to defend,” said Karim Benali, 39, a volunteer firefighter on a road near Navaluenga, in Spain.

That country has seen 77,000 hectares — nearly the size of New York City — destroyed.

David Sanchez, 48, had just returned home to Cebreros after evacuating over the weekend to find that his small olive and pistachio grove had been consumed.


“Now it’s time to clean up and plant again and that’s it … And the fire has flared up again down there,” he said, surrounded by choking air that stung the eyes and throat.

Some 150,000 hectares of land have burned in Spain and 115,000 hectares in France since the start of this year.

Earlier this month, 13 people were killed in a wildfire in southwestern Spain while flames ripped through the UNESCO-listed Fontainebleau forest south of Paris.

Near Bordeaux in France, tractors fitted with blades to clear land, pickups towing water tanks and logging trucks sped to join a convoy of fire engines.

“We want to help,” said farmer and wood transporter Christopher Bonnefond, 25, in the village of Marcheprime, in the Gironde region.

“I’m a hunter and I want nature to stay like it is.”

Climate change
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the fires “the most painful expression of a climate emergency.”

Spain’s weather agency AEMET announced a new heat wave starting Wednesday until the end of the week, with temperatures forecast to hit 42 C in the northeast and 39 C in the central areas of the country.

“The wildfire danger level will continue to increase, reaching extreme levels and making firefighting efforts more difficult due to high temperatures, locally gusty southerly winds and widespread low humidity,” AEMET said in a statement.

MeteoFrance also forecast more hot weather of up to 40 C from Tuesday with dry wind.

France and Spain race to contain fires before new heat wave

France and Spain are battling the worst wildfires in living memory, which have ripped through hundreds of hectares of woodland. Read on.

torontosun.com

 

[petros]

Worst in living memory?