A searing heatwave pushing temperatures above 40 °C across southern Europe has ignited scores of wildfires from Spain to Turkey, disrupting transport links, forcing mass evacuations and adding to a growing area of scorched land that European authorities put at roughly 360,000 hectares since the start of the year. In Spain, flames threatened the UNESCO-listed Las Médulas gold-mining landscape in León province, prompting authorities to move more than 1,400 residents to safety. Further south, a blaze in the Madrid suburb of Tres Cantos killed a stable hand, injured another person and led to the evacuation of about 180 people after burning more than 1,000 hectares. The Interior Ministry declared a nationwide “pre-emergency”, deploying almost 1,000 military personnel as 32 active fires raged in Castile and León alone and the state weather agency AEMET warned of highs reaching 44 °C. Neighbouring Portugal is battling three major fires in the north with more than 1,300 firefighters and 14 aircraft. The largest, in Vila Real district, has been burning for 10 days; with two Portuguese water-bombers grounded for repairs, Morocco dispatched replacement planes to reinforce the effort. In north-western Turkey, wind-driven fires in Çanakkale province forced the rescue of hundreds of residents and briefly halted traffic through the Dardanelles Strait on Monday evening, interrupting a key route for Black Sea oil and grain shipments. The waterway reopened after several hours, but authorities said pockets of fire were still being contained. Heat alerts remain in force across France, Italy, Greece and the Balkans. France’s SNCF pre-emptively cancelled about ten Intercités services this week to avoid air-conditioning failures on ageing carriages, while European Union civil-protection teams, including aircraft and ground crews, have been redeployed to hotspots under a mutual-aid mechanism that officials say is being activated with growing frequency as summers become hotter and drier.