AFP UK

A summer of extreme weather in China has seen multiple megacities record their hottest days ever

Chinese lithium hub Sichuan province will ration electricity supply to factories until Saturday, state media reported, as a heatwave sends power demands soaring and dries up reservoirs.

Temperatures in the province — home to nearly 84 million people — have hovered above 40-42 degrees Celsius (104-108 degrees Fahrenheit) since last week, according to data from China’s Meteorological Administration, increasing the demand for air conditioning.

The region relies on dams to generate 80 percent of its electricity, but rivers in the area have dried up this summer, Beijing’s Water Resources Ministry said. 

The province in China’s southwest produces half the nation’s lithium, used in batteries for electric vehicles, and its hydropower projects provide electricity to industrial hubs along the country’s east coast. 

But the local government has decided to prioritise residential power supply, ordering industrial users in 19 out of 21 cities in the province to suspend production until Saturday, according to a notice issued Sunday.

Several companies including aluminium producer Henan Zhongfu Industrial and fertiliser producers Sichuan Meifeng Chemical Industry said in stock exchange statements they were suspending production.

A plant operated by Taiwanese giant and Apple supplier Foxconn in the province has also suspended production, Taipei’s Central News Agency reported. 

Some companies will be permitted to operate at a limited capacity, depending on their production needs.

“Sources estimate at least 1,200 tonnes of lithium output will be cut due to the operations disruptions in these five days,” Susan Zou, an analyst at Rystad Energy, told AFP, adding the cost of lithium carbonate had jumped since Monday.

A summer of extreme weather in China has seen multiple major cities record their hottest days ever.

China’s national observatory reissued a red alert for high temperatures on Monday, state media reported, as the mercury soared past 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) across swathes of the country.

Provinces including Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui that rely on power from western China have also issued electricity curbs for industrial users to ensure homes had enough power, according to local media reports. 

Scientists say extreme weather across the world has become more frequent due to climate change, and will likely grow more intense as global temperatures rise.

Green hydrogen is in sharp focus as governments seek to slash carbon emissions and safeguard energy supplies hit by the invasion of Ukraine

Kevin Kendall pulls up at the only green hydrogen refuelling station in Birmingham, Britain’s second-biggest city, and swiftly fills his sedan with clean gas.

Green hydrogen is in sharp focus as governments seek to slash carbon emissions amid record-high temperatures and to safeguard energy supplies hit by the invasion of Ukraine by oil and gas producer Russia.

But the “hydrogen economy” has not fully kicked into gear awaiting significant uptake from high-polluting sectors like steel and aviation.

For Kendall, being an early user of green hydrogen means he does not have to queue during his lunchtime trip to what resembles a petrol pump.

“There is very little green hydrogen being produced in Britain at the moment,” the professor of chemical engineering tells AFP. “It needs now to move forward.”

In Birmingham, central England, it costs about £50 ($60) to fill Kendall’s Toyota Mirai with the green hydrogen that is produced at a plant next to the refuelling station.

That is around half the bill for a similar-sized diesel car after the Ukraine war sent fossil fuel prices rocketing.

Despite the price benefit, Britain is home to around only a dozen hydrogen refuelling stations.

While hydrogen is the most abundant element on Earth, it is locked in water and hydrocarbons such as natural gas, meaning “it’s difficult to make”, according to Kendall’s daughter, Michaela Kendall.

Together they founded Adelan, a small-sized business producing box-shaped fuel cells similar to the metal-encased devices used to help power the Toyota Mirai.

Set up 26 years ago, Adelan is the longest-running maker of fuel cells in Britain — which work also with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — while the company also offers a leasing service for the Japanese automaker’s hydrogen cars.

– ‘Increasingly attractive’ –

“Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the economics of green hydrogen have become increasingly attractive,” Minh Khoi Le, head of hydrogen research at Rystad Energy, told AFP.

“Coupled with many incentives in the second half of 2022 globally, green hydrogen looks to satisfy the trilemma of the energy system: energy security, affordability, and sustainability.”

Fallout from the war has caused the European Union to bolster its gas reserves by slashing consumption 15 percent.

The bloc is also seeking to significantly increase supplies of green hydrogen, which is made from water via electrolysis and with renewable energy. 

This is in contrast to the more available blue hydrogen, which environmentalists oppose as it is produced from natural gas in a process that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

– £9-billion investment –

At Adelan’s Birmingham workshop, a quaint brick building surrounded by houses, staff are testing the company’s so-called solid oxide fuel cells that are replacing diesel generators.

Overseeing the work, company chief executive Michaela Kendall says she expects “hydrogen capacity to really increase but it will take time”.

“Hydrocarbons will still be used for the foreseeable future,” she predicts “because the hydrogen economy has not really evolved, it’s just at the early stage”.

Britain’s government says £9 billion of investment is needed “to make hydrogen a cornerstone of the UK’s greener future” as it targets net zero carbon emissions by mid-century.

In Birmingham, the plan is for about 10 hydrogen refuelling stations in the next few years following the arrival of 120 hydrogen buses to the city in 2023. Other UK cities, including Aberdeen in Scotland, are travelling the same road.

However, “only Los Angeles has been reasonably successful with something like 9,000 hydrogen vehicles and 40 hydrogen stations”, says Kevin. 

“That’s what we’d like Birmingham to be.”

– Electric surge –

The Toyota, resembling a standard vehicle inside and out, is powered by electricity. This has been produced by green hydrogen combining with oxygen in a fuel cell.

The only waste emitted from the vehicle, which has a range of 400 miles (640 kilometres), is water vapour.

Adelan’s solid oxide fuel cell, so-called because its electrolyte is ceramic, is described as “an electric device”, generating power for batteries.

“It’s hydrogen-ready, but we tend to use hydrocarbon fuels because they’re easier to get right now,” says Michaela.

“We use fuel that is sourced in a low-carbon way” such as BioLPG.

A lack of hydrogen infrastructure means motorists wanting a greener alternative to petrol or diesel are expected to continue purchasing electric vehicles.

Despite lengthy charge times for electric car batteries and big rises in electricity prices this year, Britons are fast ditching polluting automobiles ahead of a UK ban on sales of new diesel and petrol vehicles from 2030.

It comes as oil and gas giant BP recently unveiled plans for green hydrogen production facilities in the UK.

The reservoirs of the Tibetan Plateau, which covers much of southern China and northern India, are fed by monsoons and currently supply most of the water demand for nearly two billion people

The Tibetan Plateau will experience significant water loss this century due to global warming, according to research published Monday that warns of severe supply stress in a climate change “hotspot”. 

The reservoirs of the Tibetan Plateau, which covers much of southern China and northern India, are fed by monsoons and currently supply most of the water demand for nearly two billion people. 

But the plateau’s complex terrain has made it difficult for scientists to predict how warming temperatures and altered weather patterns linked to climate change will affect the region’s water stores.

Researchers based in China and the United States used satellite-based measurements to determine the net change in water and ice mass over the past two decades.

They added in direct measurements of glaciers, lakes and sub-surface water levels to estimate changes in the water mass, then used a machine learning technique to predict storage changes under scenarios such as higher air temperature and reduced cloud cover.

They found that due to an increasingly warm and wet climate, the Tibetan Plateau has lost just over 10 billion tonnes of water a year since 2002. 

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, the team projected changes in water storage across the plateau under a middle-of-the-road emissions scenario, where levels of carbon pollution stay roughly at current levels before falling gradually after 2050. 

They found two river basins were particularly vulnerable to water loss.

For the Amu Darya, central Asia’s largest river, water loss could be equivalent to 119 percent of the current demand. 

Communities reliant on the Indus basement for water supply could see a loss equivalent to 79 percent of current demand, the study showed. 

The authors recommended that governments begin to explore alternative water supply options, including more groundwater extraction, to make up for the anticipated shortfall. 

Michael Mann, director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, said “substantial reductions in carbon emissions over the next decade” would limit global warming and the “predicted collapse of the Tibetan Plateau water towers”.

“But even in a best-case scenario, further losses are likely unavoidable, which will require substantial adaptation to decreasing water resources in this vulnerable, highly populated region of the world. Just what that would look like is hard to say — we’re in unchartered waters,” Mann, a study co-author, told AFP. 

“Suffice it to say, some amount of suffering is locked in.” 

Freya has also been spotted in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden

A walrus nicknamed Freya that attracted crowds while basking in the Oslo fjord was euthanised on Sunday, with Norway officials saying it was the only option but experts slamming an “infinitely sad” decision.

“The decision to euthanise was taken on the basis of a global evaluation of the persistent threat to human security,” the head of Norway’s Fisheries Directorate Frank Bakke-Jensen said in a statement.

“We carefully examined all the possible solutions. We concluded that we could not guarantee the well-being of the animal by any of the means available,” he said. 

Officials had previously said they were considering euthanasia because repeated appeals to the public to keep their distance from the young female weighing 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) had been in vain and that she was experiencing excessive stress.

Freya, whose name is a reference to the Norse goddess of beauty and love, had made headlines since July 17 when she was first spotted in the waters of the Norwegian capital.

Walruses normally live in the even more northerly latitudes of the Arctic.

Between long naps in the sun — a walrus can sleep up to 20 hours a day — Freya had been filmed chasing a duck, attacking a swan and, more often than not, dozing on boats struggling to support her bulk.

Despite repeated appeals, curious onlookers continued to approach the mammal, sometimes with children in tow, to take photographs.

– ‘Incredibly sad’ –

Experts said the decision to euthanise Freya did not taking into account the animal’s well-being.

Siri Martinsen, a spokeswoman for animal rights group NOAH, told TV2 television that it was a rushed measure and that fines should have been issued to disperse the onlookers.

“It’s very shocking,” she added, saying it was an opportunity to show people how to respect wild animals.

“It’s infinitely sad that they chose to euthanise such a beautiful animal simply because we did not behave well with it,” biologist Rune Aae told the NTB news agency.

The Green Party earlier this week said experts recommended giving Freya sedatives and taking her away from populated areas, or taking her back to the remote Svalbard archipelago.

But Bakke-Jensen said that “was not a viable option” because such an operation would be too complex.

Freya, estimated to be around five years old, had already been sighted in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden and chose to spend part of the summer in Norway.

Freya first gained notoriety in Norway by climbing onto pleasure boats in Kragero, an idyllic southern coastal village.

The walrus is a protected species that feeds mainly on invertebrates such as molluscs, shrimps, crabs and small fish.

Walruses do not normally behave aggressively towards humans, but they can feel threatened by intruders and attack.

An operation this week to save a beluga stranded in France’s Seine river also ended with the animal being put down.

France has been buffeted this summer by a historic drought as well as a series of heatwaves and several forest fires

A forest fire that flared anew in southern France sent 1,000 more people fleeing while overnight rain brought blazes elsewhere in the country under control, officials said on Sunday.

France has been buffeted this summer by a historic drought as well as a series of heatwaves and several forest fires.

A fire that had been raging since Monday in the southern Aveyron region appeared to be under control and dying out on Saturday afternoon when it suddenly reignited in a “virulent” manner, gobbling up 500 more hectares (1,235 acres), the prefecture said.

At least 1,000 people were evacuated from the village of Mostuejols near the city of Millau and six nearby hamlets, it said.

Around 3,000 people had already been evacuated because of the fire, but were allowed back when it appeared under control. No casualties have been reported so far from the blaze, which has consumed a total of 1,260 hectares so far.

A local man was under investigation for accidentally starting the fire when a metal part of his trailer touched the road, sending off sparks that ignited the dried vegetation.

To limit such risks in eastern France, police said on Saturday they were banning entry to all but residents in most forests in the Bas-Rhin region near the German border.

Meanwhile in the southwestern Gironde region around Bordeaux, a huge fire that had flared on Tuesday was under control after rain fell overnight, a senior official said.

“The night was favourable to us, since as you know, we had rain and very little wind…. The fire is now contained,” Ronan Leaustic, deputy prefect of Arcachon commune, told reporters on Sunday.

He added that 8,000 residents forced to evacuate could now return home.

There was further relief after a fire in the eastern department of Jura that destroyed over 1,000 hecatres was brought under control.

– Lower temperatures, rain forecast –

Arnaud Mendousse, of Gironde fire and rescue, said earlier there had been between 10 and 30 mm of rain in the region but on “terrain that is extremely dry”.

“We know that this offers a respite but does not signify an end to the fight. We know that if it does not rain in the next 48 to 72 hours the risk will increase considerably.”

He said the humidity level has gone up and the temperature was relatively low at around 25 degrees Celsius, (77 degrees Fahrenheit) but warned: “The fire is not completely out and the soil remains extremely hot.”

Meteo France was forecasting lower temperatures and rain and thunderstorms for most of the country on Sunday.

In the northwest, in the legendary Broceliande forest in region of Brittany — where King Arthur roamed and where wildfires are normally rare — a fire was contained after rain fell overnight, but remained under watch after devastating 400 hectares, officials said. 

EU members including Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania have sent reinforcement to France to help battle blazes and several  water-bombing planes from the European Union fleet have also joined firefighting efforts.

burs/raz/har

A doe looks on in a burnt forest following a fire in the soutern Gironde region

A forest fire that flared anew in southern France sent 1,000 more people fleeing while overnight rain brought blazes elsewhere in the country under control, officials said on Sunday.

France has been buffeted this summer by a historic drought as well as a series of heatwaves and several forest fires.

A fire that had been raging since Monday in the southern Aveyron region appeared to be under control and dying out on Saturday  afternoon when it suddenly reignited in a “virulent” manner, gobbling up 500 more hectares (1,235 acres), the prefecture said.

At least 1,000 people were evacuated from the village of Mostuejols near the city of Millau and six nearby hamlets, it said.

Some 3,000 people had already been evacuated because of the fire, but were allowed back when it appeared under control. No casualties have been reported so far from the blaze, which has consumed a total of 1,260 hectares so far.

A local man was under investigation for accidentally starting the fire when a metal part of his trailer touched the road, sending off sparks that ignited the dried vegetation.

To limit such risks in eastern France, police said on Saturday they were banning entry to all but residents in most forests in the Bas-Rhin region near the German border.

Meanwhile in the southwestern Gironde region around Bordeaux, a huge fire that had flared on Tuesday was under control after rain fell overnight, a senior official said.

The situation “considerably improved during the night,” Arnaud Mendousse, of Gironde fire and rescue, said.

He said there had been between 10 and 30 mm of rain in the region but on “terrain that is extremely dry”.

– Lower temperatures, rain forecast –

“We know that this offers a respite but does no signify an end to the fight. We know that if it does not rain in the next 48 to 72 hours the risk will increase considerably.”

Mendousse said the humidity level has gone up and the temperature was relatively low at around 25 degrees Celsius, (77 Fahrenheit) adding: “The fire is not completely out and the soil remains extremely hot”.

Meteo France was forecasting lower temperatures and rain and thunderstorms for most of the country on Sunday.

In the northwest, in the legendary Broceliande forest in region of Brittany — where King Arthur roamed and where wildfires are normally rare — a fire was contained after rain fell overnight, but remained under watch after devastating 400 hectares, officials said. 

EU members including Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania have sent reinforcement to France to help battle blazes and several  water-bombing planes from the European Union fleet have also joined firefighting efforts.

burs/ach  

Farmers struggle to convince workers to collect the remaining crops near the frontlines

The combine harvester lies crippled in a field of eastern Ukraine, surrounded by a blackened patch of cropland.

The machine was lumbering through a pasture outside the village of Maidan — around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the frontline with Russian forces — when it struck a mine, according to farmer Pavlo Kudimov.

One front wheel was wrenched off and the giant rotating reel prised aside, as the cabin was scorched by flames.

The next morning the driver remained in hospital suffering serious burns as the wreck still smouldered, a reminder of the risks of tending land in a breadbasket that has become a brutal war zone.

“Farming has always been hard, but it’s even harder now,” Kudimov told AFP.

At the start of August, the first shipment of grain left Ukraine since Russia launched its large-scale invasion and blockaded Kyiv’s ports on the southern Black Sea.

Ukraine accounts for 10 percent of the world wheat market and the boat left under a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, eager to assuage a global food price crisis hammering poor nations.

Inside Ukraine, the embargo on grain exports has created a crisis for farmers.

With no access to international markets, silos are full, prices have dived and the supply chain logjam has yet to ease up.

– ‘Risking our lives’ –

Farmers in Donbas — the eastern region where the war with Russia shifted after the Kremlin gambit to capture Kyiv failed — are facing threats on two fronts.

Comprising the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Donbas is the industrial and farming heartland of Ukraine.

But every day the air raid sirens sound. Rockets rain down, military jets attack ground targets and cluster bombs speckle fields.

Endless sunflower pastures are now gouged with defensive trenches.

Last year, farmer Sergey Lubarskyi was paid up to 8 hryvnia ($0.22) for each kilo of wheat.

Since the blockade, he can now fetch just 3 hryvnia — if he can transport it to the regional hub of Kramatorsk.

In the frontline village of Rai-Aleksandrovka, he can only fetch 1.80 hyrvnia.

“Drivers are afraid to come here,” he says.

Eduard Stukalo, 46, farms 150 hectares on the outskirts of the city of Sloviansk. 

Some 30 hectares of wheat have “completely burned down” — he suspects from artillery fire.

It is a struggle to convince workers to collect the crop that remains near the frontlines.

“Farmers like us will go bankrupt this year,” he says. “No one wants to go there to harvest, because everyone is afraid of incoming missiles.”

“We were risking our lives also when we sowed the fields in April and May this year,” he added.

“Cluster bombs hit our fields. Bombs exploded 100 to 200 metres from us.” 

But some are driven by wartime austerity to work the land, despite the risks.

“We go to work in the fields, because there is no other employment here,” said 57-year-old Svitlana Gaponova, plucking aubergines in a field outside the besieged settlement of Soledar.

“It’s scary, but it’s distracting,” she said as the sound of munition blasts rolled across the horizon.

– ‘Nothing left’ –

In this impoverished portion of Ukraine, there is also a strong tradition of subsistence farming.

At the Sunday market, stallholders sell the meagre produce they can nurture in their personal plots. 

“People plant their gardens and they work there constantly,” said Volodymyr Rybalkin, military administration head of the frontline Sviatohirsk district, discussing residents’ reluctance to leave. 

“We constantly explain to people what is happening around, and try to motivate them to evacuate to safer cities.”

Though these plots do not weigh on the scales of global trade and politics, they are not exempt from the perils of wartime.

In the early hours last Monday morning, incoming fire cratered the space behind 57-year-old Lyubov Kanisheva’s modest cottage on the outskirts of Kramatorsk.

Next door more than a dozen beehives were shattered and upended. Now the swarming hum of bees merges with the hounding air raid siren.

In Kanisheva’s plot, grape vines have been caked in dust and tomatoes smashed into the earth.

“The garden was just for our needs, but we managed to grow a lot,” she said.

“There is nothing of it left.”

Children stand on a boat lying on the dried-up bed of southern Iraq's receding Chibayish Marshes

To feed and cool his buffaloes, Hashem Gassed must cross 10 kilometres (six miles) of sunburnt land in southern Iraq, where drought is devastating swathes of the mythical Mesopotamian Marshes.

The reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden, Iraq’s swamplands have been battered by three years of drought and low rainfall, as well as reduced water flows along rivers and tributaries originating in neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

Vast expanses of the once lush Huwaizah Marshes, straddling the border with Iran, have been baked dry, their vegetation yellowing. Stretches of the Chibayish Marshes, which are popular with tourists, are suffering the same fate.

“The marshes are our livelihood — we used to fish here and our livestock could graze and drink,” said Gassed, 35, from a hamlet near Huwaizah.

Southern Iraq’s marshlands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016, both for their biodiversity and their ancient history.

But now, beds of dry streams snake around the once verdant wetlands, and the area’s Um al-Naaj lake has been reduced to puddles of muddy water among largely dry ground.

Like his father before him, Gassed raises buffaloes, but only five of the family’s around 30 animals are left.

The others died or were sold as the family struggles to make ends meet.

Family members watch carefully over those that remain, fearful that the weak, underfed beasts might fall in the mud and die.

“We have been protesting for more than two years and no one is listening,” Gassed said.

“We are at a loss where to go. Our lives are over.”

– ‘No more fish’ –

Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Mesopotamian Marshes suffered under the former dictator Saddam Hussein, who ordered that they be drained in 1991 as punishment for communities protecting insurgents, and to hunt them down.

The wetlands have sporadically gone through years of harsh drought in the past, before being revived by good rainy seasons.

But between August 2020 and this month, 46 percent of the swamplands of southern Iraq, including Huwaizah and Chibayish, suffered total surface water loss, according to Dutch peace-building organisation PAX.

Another 41 percent of marsh areas suffered from reduced water levels and wetness, according to the organisation, which used satellite data to make the assessment.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Iraq said the marshes were “one of the poorest regions in Iraq and one of the most affected by the climate change”, warning of “unprecedented low water levels”.

It noted the “disastrous impact” on more than 6,000 families who “are losing their buffaloes, their unique living asset”.

Biodiversity is also at risk.

The swamplands provide a home for “numerous populations of threatened species”, and are an important stopping point for around 200 species of migratory water birds, according to UNESCO.

Environmental activist Ahmed Saleh Neema said there were “no more fish”, wild boar or even a subspecies of smooth-coated otter in the marshes.

– ‘Like a desert’ –

He said the Huwaizah swamplands were irrigated by two tributaries of the Tigris River, which originates in Turkey, but that their flows had dropped.

Iraqi authorities are rationing supplies to cover different needs, he said.

“The government wants to preserve the largest quantity of water possible,” he added, lamenting “unfair water sharing” and “poor (resource) management”.

After pressure from protesters, authorities partially opened the valves, he said, but had closed them again.

On the Iranian side, the Huwaizah Marshes, called Hoor al-Azim, are also suffering.

“The wetland is facing water stress and currently about half of its Iranian part has dried up,” Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported recently.

Hatem Hamid, who heads the Iraqi government’s water management centre, said that “on the Iranian side, the main river that feeds the Huwaizah marsh has been totally cut for more than a year”.

The water needs of Iraqi farms and marshlands are only half met, he acknowledged, as authorities are closely monitoring reserves and trying to cover a range of uses, with drinking water one of the “priorities”.

Iraqi officials point to canals and small streams that have been rehabilitated to feed into the marshes — and to where some families have relocated from dried-out areas.

But it is “impossible to compensate for the very high evaporation in the marshes” in temperatures that pass 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), he added.

In Chibayish, the effects of the drought are all too clear to Ali Jawad, who said dozens of families had left his hamlet.

“They migrated towards other regions, looking for areas where there is water,” the 20-year-old said.

“Before, when we used to come to the marshes, there was greenery, water, inner peace,” he added.

“Now it’s like a desert.”

Fires in France in 2022 have ravaged an area three times the annual average over the past 10 years

French firefighters tackled wildfires raging in the country’s southeast Saturday as officials kept a wary eye on a huge blaze that appeared to be contained further west.

France has been buffeted this summer by a historic drought that has forced water use restrictions nationwide, as well as a series of heatwaves that experts say are being driven by climate change.

On Saturday, a reignited “virulent” fire in the Aveyron department near Toulouse forced the evacuation of more than 130 people, officials said, while another blaze in the department of Drome, south of Lyon, progressed.

The Aveyron and Drome fires have destroyed more than 1,200 hectares (3,100 acres).

A fire in the legendary Broceliande forest in the northwestern region of Brittany, where King Arthur roamed, devastated nearly 400 hectares but officials said on Saturday the fire was no longer progressing.

A 40-kilometre (25-mile) fire front in the Gironde and Landes departments around Bordeaux also “did not significantly progress overnight. Firefighters are working on its periphery”, police said in a statement. 

But officials said it was premature to say that the blaze — which has already reignited once — was under control.

“We remain vigilant” because “while we can’t see huge flames, the fire continues to consume vegetation and soil,” Arnaud Mendousse, of Gironde fire and rescue, told AFP.

Officials suspect arson may have played a role in the latest flare-up, which has burned 7,400 hectares since Tuesday.

Weather forecasters are expecting thunderstorms with wind gusts of up to 60 kilometres (40 miles) an hour in the region in the evening.

The wind “could reignite the fire” that “is in a state of pause”, Mendousse warned.

In a bid to keep the situation contained, firefighters in Gironde on Saturday were busy dousing the hot and still smoking earth with water.

– Fireworks banned –

Authorities on Saturday reopened a highway linking Bordeaux and Spain after closing a 20-kilometre stretch on Wednesday.

Traditional firework displays for the Catholic Feast of the Assumption on Monday, when Mary is believed to have entered heaven, have been banned in several areas.

Corsica was lashed by winds travelling at 95 kilometres an hour overnight and hit by hail, Meteo-France said.

Forecaster Claire Chanal said the storms expected this weekend could leading to flooding and hail.

EU members including Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania have pledged reinforcements totalling 361 firefighters to join the roughly 1,100 French ones on the ground, along with several water-bombing planes from the European Union fleet.

Most of the reinforcements had arrived on the ground, with the last 146 firefighters from Poland arriving late afternoon on Saturday.

“Here we are all volunteers. We’re trained, we want to help,” said Tone Neuhalfel, a German firefighter aged 36.

The Atlantic port of Brest hit 35.9 degrees Celsius (96.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a record for the month of August.

– Forests off limits –

In eastern France, police said on Saturday they were banning entry to most forests in the Bas-Rhin region near the German border.

Cars, cyclists, hikers, hunters and fishermen are prohibited from entry until Tuesday, police said in a statement. Only residents will be able to access the area.

“It’s an extreme step in the face of an exceptional situation,” said Pierre Grandadam, president of a group that includes the Alsace forested communities.

“Everything is dry, the slightest gesture can lead to a conflagration. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said the 74-year-old.

“We’re praying for rain.”

The blaze near Bordeaux erupted in July — the driest month seen in France since 1961 — destroying 14,000 hectares and forcing thousands of people to evacuate before it was contained.

But it continued to smoulder in the tinder-dry pine forests and peat-rich soil.

Fires in France in 2022 have ravaged an area three times the annual average over the past 10 years, with blazes also active in the Alpine Jura, Isere and Ardeche regions this week.

European Copernicus satellite data showed more carbon dioxide greenhouse gas — over one million tonnes — had been released from 2022’s forest fires in France than in any summer since records began in 2003.

burs-mac/raz/har

Volunteers usually sign up for a five-year period that can be extended afterwards

Volunteer firefighters have been called up from their day jobs all over France this summer to help battle wildfires.

“It’s the first year we’ve been summoned so much to help outside” our region, said 23-year-old Victorien Pottier.

Volunteer firefighters make up more than three-quarters of all the nearly 252,000 firefighters in the country, according to official figures.

They have been on the frontline dousing flames this summer as the country tackles a historic drought and a series heatwaves that experts say are being driven by climate change.

These have included a huge blaze in the southwestern region of Gironde, which erupted in July and destroyed 14,000 hectares before it was contained.

But it continued to smoulder in the tinder-dry pine forests and peat-rich soil, and flared up again this week, burning a further 7,400 hectares.

When he is not on duty once every five weeks in the northwestern village of Quelaines-Saint-Gault, Pottier works preparing orders for a large dairy products manufacturer.

In southwest France, Alisson Mendes, 36, a sales assistant for a prominent supermarket group, said she went to help fight the massive blaze in Gironde for two days.

She said she would be prepared to go back, but thought her chances were slim as she had heard there was a long waiting list of other volunteers hoping to go and help out.

“They prioritise those who’ve never been,” she said.

France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Wednesday called on private companies to free up their volunteer firefighters so they could come and help.

Large companies, including the national gas and electricity providers, on Friday said they would do their best.

So did Pottier’s dairy product company.

In the beginning, it was not very enthusiastic about him volunteering his time, says Pottier, who has been on call to fight fires for more than three and a half years.

– Fine balance –

“But then they saw what was in it for them,” he said.

“We’re good at spotting risky situations within the company, which helps to avoid work accidents.”

Each firm decides how many days they can free up those employees in a case of emergency through a deal they sign with the local firefighting services.

But Samuel Mathis, secretary general of the volunteer firefighter syndicate, says smaller companies cannot so easily afford to do without their staff.

The government “tells companies to free up volunteers,” he said.

“But I don’t see how a tradesperson with just two or three employees can reasonably do without them, especially in August,” he said.

At the end of 2020, France counted 197,100 volunteer firefighters, according to official figures.

That is compared to just 41,800 professional firemen and women, and 13,000 paramilitary police trained to help out.

But when they rush to help extinguish the flames, volunteer firefighters are not paid a salary like their peers. 

Instead, they are only paid compensation of 8 euros ($8) an hour of work — less than the national minimum wage.

Mathis, of the volunteer firefighting union, said it was too little.

“It’s not nearly enough to confront flames 40 metres (130 feet) high,” he said.

It’s an issue that will need addressing as France seeks to recruit more volunteers.

The president of the National Federation of Firefighters, Gregory Allione, says a massive recruitment drive is needed to find 50,000 people to battle blazes on a voluntary basis by 2027.

Volunteers usually sign up for a five-year period that can be extended afterwards. In the past, people have stayed on for around 11-12 years.

But this has been slipping, according to Olivier Grauss, who works as a firefighter in the eastern town of Selestat and also volunteers in the smaller village of Obernai “out of passion”.

The main reasons are “work, school, family”.

“There are more and more women, but often the women stop after they have a child,” said the 34-year-old, who has been a volunteer firefighter since he was 16.

Mendes, who comes from Correze in southwestern France, says “many stay for two or three years and leave because they didn’t realise there are so many constraints”.

“You are not appreciated, you get psychologically exhausted.”

Volunteer firefighters have to on a daily basis find a balance between their professional life, their families and the volunteering.

– ‘Constant adrenaline’ – 

Aurelie Ponzevera is a 39-year-old social worker in Corsica and has been a volunteer firefighter for about 10 years. Lack of sleep and lack of time are her biggest constraints.

She manages to find a balance by coordinating caring for her three-year-old daughter with her partner, who is a professional firefighter.

“It’s constantly organisation and anticipation. We know that when one is on call, the other one is not,” she says.

“Sometimes it’s very complicated on the emotional level, but we have to move past it and continue. But that’s part of the package with this constant adrenaline, that’s part of what draws us to it,” Ponzevera says.

aco-mc-mb-ari-obo/lbx/ah/ach