Wildfire chaos sweeps across Europe as Spain, Italy, France and Greece in flames

Wildfires have burnt across Europe (Image: Getty)

Wildfires have wreaked destruction over southern Europe this week, with thousands of residents forced to flee their homes. The fires, which have burned in Spain, Italy, France and Greece, as well as other countries, have been caused by hot weather and strong winds, and even arsonists.

According to the EU Science Hub's Joint Research Centre, around 1,700 square miles of land have been affected by fire across Europe so far this year. This figure is double the average for the same period since 2006. A volunteer in the Greek city of Patras, located west of Athens, described the scene this week as "like doomsday".

Officials in the city evacuated a children's hospital and a retirement home on Wednesday (August 13). Around 500 vehicles were also destroyed as the blaze swept into a tow yard.

As reported by Reuters, Giorgos Karvanis, a volunteer who had come from Athens to Patras to help, said: "What does it look like? It looks like doomsday. May God help us and help the people here."

Meanwhile, people were urged to move to safety as fires spread in the popular tourist islands of Chios and Cephalonia. Around 5,000 firefighters were deployed, supported by 45 planes and helicopters.

In Spain, a volunteer firefighter tragically died in the Castile and Leon region north of Madrid. The 35-year-old suffered severe burns after being trapped in a fire near the town of Nogarejas.

Wildfires buring in the Galicia area of Spain (Image: Getty)

Alexander Held, a senior expert in fire management at the European Forest Institute, said firefighters' lives are at risk while working in unprepared landscapes. He explained: "Take an industrial building and imagine there would be no fire detectors, no sprinkler systems, no fire protection doors and no escape routes – firefighters would just refuse to go in, but in our landscape we expect them to do this."

According to Greenpeace, investing around £860 million every year in forest management could save around 9.9 million hectares of land. This area is the size of Portugal.

France has also been suffering its largest wildfire in at least 50 years. A blaze in southern France spread across an area bigger than Paris.

Local authorities said the recent hot and dry weather made the situation particularly hazardous. Around 1,300 firefighters were mobilised to prevent it from reigniting this week.

Some of the recent fires in Spain are believed to have been started by arsonists, according to environment minister Sara Aagesen. A firefighters was arrested on Tuesday (August 12) for fires started near Madrid two weeks ago.

Homes have been evacuated due to fires in Greece (Image: Getty)

Police also said they were investigating a woman, 63, for allegedly starting fires in Galicia's Muxia area in August. Investigating officers have also identified a suspect after a small fire was started in Cadiz.

In Italy, a wildfire broke out on Mount Vesuvius, close to Naples, and stretched around 1.9 miles wide. Some tourists trails were forced to shut as the flames destroyed hundreds of hectares of woodland and killed wild animals.

Tourists in Pompeii and Naples could see plumes of smoke in the area. Firefighting planes were deployed alongside drones, firefighters, soldiers and police from across Italy.

Other wildfires have swept across Albania and Turkey this week. One person died in Albania while hundreds of people were evacuated from the northwestern province of Canakkale in Turkey.

The fires have been fanned by warm winds (Image: Getty)