Thousands of people have been evacuated overnight due to wildfires in Tenerife.
The towns of Santa Ursula and La Orotava in the north-east have been affected following surging temperatures and strong winds.
The blaze has spread across approximately 70 acres and around 3,000 people have been evacuated from the area.
The military has also been called in to help battle the fires although both airports are still operational.
The same area was hit by one of the island’s worst wildfires in decades in August, when 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of pine forest and scrubland were burned and some 12,000 residents evacuated over several weeks. Small fires have continued to break out since.
Joe Cawley, a travel writer based in Tenerife, told Sky News: “This obviously comes after the larger August fires but this is worrying sign that they have started again.
“The temperatures have increased and we are in that dangerous 30/30/30 situation. That’s 30 per cent humidity, 30km breezes, and over 30°C, which is what usually triggers these fires.
“This fire is in a particularly steep part of the island and its amongst pine trees, brambles, and heather, so there is a lot more smoke being created and I think that’s the main reason behind the evacuations.
“They’ve got seven helicopters in the area so they are doing all they can and this morning we heard reports that they were making progress and that they should soon have control of the perimeter.”
Various European countries — such as Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Algeria, and Tunisia — have been set ablaze by unprecedented forest fires in recent months. This was initially brought on by the Saharan Cerberus heatwave, where an area of high pressure is trapped over the southern Mediterranean, in Spain in particular, and clouds of Saharan dust are making conditions worse.
Another factor for these dangerously high temperatures is unusually high sea-surface temperatures, which means that cooler air is not blowing inland off the Mediterranean.
One of the UK’s leading climate scientists, Sir David King, said climate change is set to fuel more severe blazes in the future and tourists planning trips to the Mediterranean should see the Greek wildfires as a “big, big warning”.
Where in Europe have there been wildfires?
Greece
Since July 2023, there have been multiple wildfires in Greece. Two firefighter pilots tragically lost their lives while waterbombing an affected area on the island of Evia. There have also been incidents in Attica, Corfu, Magnesia, and Rhodes. The wildfires in Greece resulted in at least five deaths and injured more than 20 people.
This means both holidaymakers and locals have been evacuated over the past few months, in the largest ever operation of its kind in Greece. Jet2 and Tui have both had to cancel flights to Rhodes, while tourists report needing to walk for hours in the heat in order to find safety.
On Corfu, those living and staying in the areas of Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia Perithia, and Sinies were evacuated to Kassiopi, a village on the north-east coast of the island.
Italy
The wildfires in Italy have taken place in areas such as Abruzzo, Sicily, Apulia, Sardinia, and Palermo.
In July, raging wildfires forced the closure of Palermo Airport, as thousands of tourists were forced to abandon European holidays because of blazes and extreme weather.
Flames could be seen surrounding the runway in a video shared online by the airport in the Sicilian capital, as its operator said firefighters were working to put out the inferno.
Prior to that, 16 Italian cities were put on red alert by the government over blisteringly high heat.
These include Palermo and Catania, where power and water supply cuts, that local officials blamed in part on the heat, had been frequent.
Spain
In July, a rapidly spreading wildfire broke out at the centre of the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, forcing authorities to remove several hundred villagers from their homes.
Reuters reported that the flames were affecting the hilly central part of the island near the Tejeda peak, away from the beaches popular with tourists.
Antonio Morales, head of the Island Council of Gran Canaria, told reporters that about 100 firefighters and nine aircraft were working to put out the blaze that has so far burned through 200 hectares of forest, but no buildings have been affected.
And on Saturday, almost 140 people were evacuated in Spain's north-eastern Catalonia region after a large forest fire spread across the equivalent of 600 soccer fields within a day.
Portugal
Around 1,400 people including tourists have been evacuated as a huge wildfire tearing through land in southern Portugal continues to spread, as of today.
More than 850 firefighters and six water-bombing planes were tackling the blaze on Tuesday, which has scorched thousands of hectares of land since it began on Saturday, and is heading towards the Algarve.
Nineteen tiny villages, four tourist developments, and a camping site have been evacuated out of precaution. Several roads have also been blocked off, authorities said.
UK
The Cannich wildfire took place in May-June 2023 in Cannich, a village in the Highland council area of Scotland.
The incident was hugely challenging for dozens of firefighters due to the terrain, and warm, dry, and windy weather.
Two firefighters were hurt at the scene of the blaze after their all-terrain vehicle overturned.
