Wildfires in southwest Europe: What we know so far

Wildfires are rampaging through vast areas of land in southwestern Europe, forcing France and Spain to evacuate more than 325,000 people from their homes.Some of the worst fires in France since World War II come just weeks after record-breaking heatwaves scorched Europe. Authorities have deployed thousands of firefighters to battle the blazes.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3What’s causing the unprecedented wildfires in Europe?list 2 of 3Firefighters battle to contain wildfires still burning near Bordeauxlist 3 of 3Firefighters battle wildfires in Spain’s eastern Castellon provinceend of listOn Sunday, France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, said about “115,000 hectares (284,171 acres) have burned in wildfires in France since the start of the year”. In Spain, 119,458 hectares (295,187 acres) of land have been burnt as of July 22 , according to data from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).More than 150,000 hectares have burned across Spain since January, said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez – that’s six times the area destroyed during the same period last year.Wildfires destroyed 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) of land in Europe in 2...