European Heatwave: Record Temperatures Cause Wildfires and Claim Child's Life Due to Heatstroke

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A heatwave ravaging southern Europe has resulted in the deaths of a child and three men, and has compelled thousands to evacuate as wildfires rage.

In Italy, a four-year-old Romanian boy succumbed to heatstroke on Monday after being discovered unconscious in his family’s car on the island of Sardinia.

Officials reported that a worker from a Spanish equestrian center passed away from his injuries on Tuesday in a suburb north of Madrid, reportedly while attempting to rescue horses.

Later, officials in Castile and Leon in northwestern Spain confirmed another man had been killed while fighting fires.

Additionally, in Montenegro, a soldier lost his life and another was critically injured when their water tanker overturned while battling wildfires in the hills north of Podgorica, the capital.

‘A significantly warmer world’

Heat alerts were issued in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Balkans, with temperatures expected to soar above 40C, and experts say the heatwave is another sign of climate change, which is fuelling longer, more intense and increasingly frequent bouts of extreme heat.

Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the University of Reading’s meteorology department in England, conveyed to Agence France-Presse that “we now live in a significantly warmer world” due to climate change, warning that “many still underestimate the danger”.

Thousands forced from their homes

Hundreds of residents of Tres Cantos, near the Spanish capital Madrid, fled from the fast-moving blaze, which was contained on Tuesday morning.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that rescue services were “working tirelessly to extinguish the fires.”

Elsewhere, about 2,000 people were evacuated from hotels and homes near the popular beaches of Tarifa in Andalusia, southern Spain.

In Castile and Leon, dozens of blazes were reported, including one threatening Las Medulas, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its ancient Roman gold mines.

In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters battled three large wildfires, with the most serious near Trancoso in the centre of the country, where 700 firefighters were deployed.