A wildfire in Spain's northeastern province of Aragon killed a Spanishh soldier on Sunday
Paris (France) (AFP) - Rain fell in Belgium on Monday as the country battles its biggest wildfire in recent history, while Greece said a deadly blaze near Athens had been controlled.
But anger over the official response to Europe’s summer of fires boiled over when French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was jeered as he visited a village devastated by a forest inferno.
Here are the latest developments across Europe:
- Rain boosts Belgium’s fight -
Rain started falling in Belgium on Monday to help its fight against the country’s biggest modern-day wildfire that has devastated some 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) of the High Fens park on the border with Germany.
Some 500 firefighters and troops are battling the blaze that has sent a huge cloud of black smoke across the region into neighbouring Germany and France.
Germany’s defence ministry said Monday that two military water-bombing helicopters would be sent to Belgium. The German town of Monschau, close to the border, ordered nearly 30 people living in two streets near the frontier to evacuate.
- Greece controls deadly blaze -
Two fires on the Greek island of Salamis near Athens that claimed two lives and led to the evacuation of nearly 600 people on boats have been largely extinguished, the fire service said Monday.
The fires broke out Sunday near packed beaches on the island just west of Athens that is popular with day travellers. Though the civil protection agency issued evacuation orders, the fire department said the fires spread in just seven minutes owing to strong winds, trapping an elderly couple near their home.
- French PM jeered -
About 200 people in the French village of Le Porge, where 183 homes were destroyed in a giant wildfire last month, jeered Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he arrived for a visit to the devastated western Gironde region on Monday.
French authorities said 250 people evacuated from another fire still burning in the Landes region would be allowed to return to their homes in the village of Luglon as it was now under control.
- Death in Spain -
A Spanish soldier died Sunday while helping to extinguish a major wildfire in Aragon, the northeastern region’s leader said, as the authorities deployed the largest firefighting arsenal in the region’s history.
French reinforcements were due to help contain the wildfire, which broke out on Monday and has threatened a 1,000-year-old monastery. Hundreds of people have been evacuated.
- Portugal fires -
Hundreds of firefighters in Portugal were battling a series of blazes there.
At one near the village of Dine, on the border with Spain, five firefighters sustained minor injuries when their vehicle caught fire, media reported.
Firefighters were battling several other fires near the Spanish border, including at Boticas and Chavez, said the civil protection agency ANEPC.
burs-tw/st