France and Spain Brace for Another Heat Wave While Battling Historic Wildfires

France and Spain are bracing for another heat wave as thousands of firefighters and troops continue to battle unprecedented fires that have forced over 360,000 people to evacuate their homes. In a town in eastern Spain, residents described devastating scenes from this weekend. José Miguel Encinas: “It was like in the movies, where hell cracked the ground open, and you see the red hell. That’s how it was here. On Saturday night, this hill was horrific. In this area with houses, there were flames 15 to 20 meters tall. It was an atrocity. … I can’t describe the helplessness that a person feels to see their home, their neighbors’ homes, their town, their neighborhood burning.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez linked the fires to the escalating climate emergency. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez: “What we are living is not a succession of isolated events. As has been said before, it is the most painful expression of a climate emergency that is making sixth-generation wildfires more voracious, heat waves more frequent and, as a result, our territory more vulnerable. This is no longer an exception. It is the new reality. Summers are becoming increasingly difficult, destructive and, therefore, deadly.” www.democracynow.org