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Wildfires were raging in Spain and France on Tuesday, prompting the closure of an international airport, after a dayslong heat wave parched landscapes in the region and turned woodlands into tinderboxes.
At least five people and five firefighters were injured in southern France, where a blaze near the city of Narbonne was burning for a second day, according to the local authorities. Officials said in a statement that the wildfire had already scorched nearly 5,000 acres of land, and that more than 1,000 firefighters were working to bring it under control.
Over 150 miles away, just north of Marseille, a separate blaze started by a car fire and fueled by powerful, erratic winds tore through 1,700 acres of dry vegetation. The wildfire forced a nearby airport to halt all takeoffs and landings, disrupted local train and road traffic and cast thick clouds of acrid smoke over the city.
Local authorities said that over 700 firefighters had managed to stop the flames at the city’s northern limits, with limited destruction and no deaths so far. Georges-François Leclerc, the local state representative, urged the population to remain calm, hunker down at home to avoid toxic fumes and keep roads clear for firefighters.
“The situation is not set in stone, it has not stabilized, but it is under control,” he told reporters.
The French weather agency also warned that there was a high risk of forest fires elsewhere in the country, given the windy conditions.
Across the border in Spain, the Catalonia regional authorities ordered residents in nearly a dozen towns and neighborhoods to remain in their homes as firefighters battled a blaze that the area’s emergency services said had burned nearly 6,000 acres since Monday.
Gusts of wind up to 55 miles per hour were complicating the efforts of the 89 teams of firefighters on the ground, David Borrell, the region’s fire inspector, said.
“We have been working all night in very precarious, very hard conditions,” Mr. Borrell said in a statement, adding that distress calls from terrified residents increased overnight.
Last week, stifling heat gripped much of Western Europe, with France and Spain the hardest hit. The heat wave dried out the terrain, creating fuel for wildfires, according to weather agencies and experts.
“In parts of Southern Europe, it’s a perfect storm: scorching heat, severe drought and vast plantations of flammable, non-native trees like eucalyptus,” Sarah Carter, a researcher at Global Forest Watch, said in an email.
And while much of France has cooled in recent days, the same weather system that created a cooling breeze is responsible for gusts of wind that quickly spread fires, according to the French weather agency.
In other parts of Europe, rising temperatures prompted weather warnings in several countries.
In Greece, temperatures rose above 40 Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit, on Tuesday. The heat prompted the authorities in Athens to restrict visiting hours to the Acropolis, the archaeological site popular with tourists that overlooks the capital. The Greek Civil Protection Ministry warned that there was an “extremely high” risk of wildfires in Athens and issued more moderate warnings for other parts of the country.
In Portugal, four active fires were burning in the west, according to Fogos, a website that tracks blazes in the country.
Romania’s weather agency issued a red warning, its highest, as forecasters predicted that temperatures could climb as high as 41 Celsius, or 105.8 Fahrenheit. In Serbia, the weather agency there warned of “very dangerous” conditions, with temperatures expected to exceed 38 Celsius, or 100.4 Fahrenheit.
On Monday, the Greek Labor Ministry ordered businesses to pause working hours when temperatures peak in the afternoon or face fines of up to 2,000 euros, or about $2,300.
Nazaneen Ghaffar contributed reporting from London, Niki Kitsantonis from Athens and Aurelien Breeden from Paris.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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