[imagesource: YouTube / The Guardian]
The massive heatwaves sweeping over Europe at the moment have taken on a particularly hellish hue in Spain.
Two shocking videos reveal the devastating extent of wildfires in the country. One shows a man with his clothes burning off his body as he runs through a field fire, and a second shows people on a train passing through fires raging on both sides.
Spain has been dealing with an eight-day heatwave, which is apparently coming to an end per The Guardian. Dozens of wildfires have destroyed almost 30 000 hectares.
Some of those fires are still raging on.
When paying tribute to those fighting the fires, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, mentioned that the events of the past few days were further evidence of the deadly consequences of the climate crisis:
“I want to make something very clear,” he said. “Climate change kills: it kills people, as we’ve seen; it also kills our ecosystem, our biodiversity, and it also destroys the things we as a society hold dear – our houses, our businesses, our livestock.”
On Monday, a Spanish man in his 50s was riding his excavator in a field in the north-western region of Castilla y León when everything was engulfed by flames.
Moments later, you can see him running out of the fire with his clothes going up in flames. He was sent to the hospital to have his serious burns treated.
Watch the hellscape unfold:
The same day, the body of a 69-year-old man, reportedly a shepherd, was found in a burnt-out area near the small town of Escober de Tábara in Zamora.
In the province of Zamora, a fire raged while a train passed through, giving passengers on board a terrifying view of the flames flicking on both sides of the track:
“It was really scary to see how quickly the fire spread,” Francisco Seoane, who shot the video, told the Associated Press.
“Just in the blink of an eye, a new bush began burning. It was a matter of seconds. It suddenly become night, and we could even smell the smoke.”
Check it out:
The heatwave in the UK is so intense that both The Telegraph and The Guardian have rolling live coverage of events as they unfold.
Hectic.
[source:guardian]
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