Ten passengers injured after train stopped in middle of wildfire

2022-08-17

Next stop, the fires of hell: Ten passengers are injured after their train stopped in the middle of raging wildfire and three people who tried to flee carriages were left with serious burns

Several passengers on the train panicked when they saw the fire in the Valencia region and broke windows in an effort to escape the carriage as flames quickly approached the tracks – despite driver urging them to stay
Three people were seriously burned by the wildfires, with one passenger airlifted to hospital for treatment
For those who remained in the carriages, driver was able to reverse the train and return safely to Valencia
The same wildfire sent firefighters running for their lives, as towering flames from the fire roared behind them

At least ten passengers were injured after their train stopped in the middle of a raging wildfire in Spain, with footage showing the flames just yards away from their carriages.

Several passengers on the train panicked when they saw the fire in the Valencia region and broke windows in an effort to escape the carriage as flames quickly approached the tracks – despite the driver urging them to stay on board.

Three people were seriously burned by the wildfires, with one passenger airlifted to hospital for treatment in Valencia, the regional health authorities said. More than eight others were lightly injured.

But for those who remained in their carriages, the driver was able to reserve the train, which has been bound for Zaragoza, and return safely to Valencia city station.

Horrifying footage taken by a passenger on the train showed the flames roaring up into the sky just yards away from the windows on Tuesday in the municipality of Bejis, north of Valencia city.

The same wildfire sent four firefighters running for their lives on Wednesday, as towering flames from the fire roared behind them.

Horrifying footage taken by a passenger on the train showed the flames roaring up into the sky just yards away from the windows on Tuesday in the municipality of Bejis, north of Valencia city

The same wildfire sent four firefighters running for their lives on Wednesday, as towering flames from the fire roared behind them

A cry of ‘run, run, run’ rang out across the hillside as the wall of flame, fed by high winds, swept down towards the firefighters, engulfing tinder-dry brackens seconds after they fled for their lives

Three firefighters were injured by flames and several villages in the area were evacuated, local emergency services said on Twitter

A firefighting plane drops water during fire extinguish works in Viver, eastern Spain, on Wednesday

The wreckage of a car burned by a forest fire in Bejis, Castellon, Spain, on Wednesday

Three firefighters were injured by flames and several villages in the area were evacuated, local emergency services said on Twitter.

The wildfire in Bejis is one of two still raging out of control in eastern Spain. South of Valencia city, a bigger fire around the Val d’Ebo area has forced more than 1,500 people to evacuate towns and villages since the weekend.

Climate change has left parts of the Iberian peninsula at their driest in 1,200 years, according to a study published last month in the Nature Geoscience journal.

Valencia regional president Ximo Puig said on Wednesday that the Bejis fire had a perimeter of some 30 miles and had burned some 10,00 acres.

He said the Val d’Ebo blaze had a perimeter of 50 miles and had scorched some 28,000 acres.

The European Forest Fire Information System says 679,000 acres have burned in wildfires so far this year in Spain, more than four times the country’s annual average of 165,000 acres since 2006, when records began.

Elsewhere in Spain, there are warnings of torrential rain for tomorrow which could cause flash floods in the country.

Valencia regional president Ximo Puig said on Wednesday that the Bejis fire had a perimeter of some 30 miles and had burned some 10,00 acres. Pictured: A firefighter battles a wildfire in Bejis on Wednesday

A plane drops water into a wildfire burning near Pego, Spain, on Tuesday

Flames and smoke rise from the fire in the village of Bejis, Castellon, eastern of Spain, on Tuesday

Firefighters at work as a wildfire threatens the village of Bejis, Castellon, eastern Spain, on Tuesday

Smoke caused by the fire in the village of Bejis, Castellon, eastern Spain, on Tuesday

Firefighters tackle a wildfire in Orjais, Covilha council in central Portugal on Tuesday in the Serra da Estrela park

In neighbouring Portugal, more than 1,200 firefighters struggled Wednesday to control a huge forest fire in the Serra da Estrela park near Orjais, which resumed just days after being brought under control.

Strong winds have been hampering attempts to combat the spread of the fire, one of 195 that have ravaged some 92,000 hectares of land across Portugal this year amid record temperatures.

The fire in the UNESCO-designated park restarted Tuesday after being brought under control five days earlier, and is estimated to have already consumed around 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of land.

It is still posing a sizeable challenge even if ’90 percent of this fire’s perimeter is now under control’, said civil protection agency head Andre Fernandes.

July proved to be Portugal’s hottest in nearly a century, with the country battling its worst forest fires since 2017 when around 100 lives were lost.

Scientists say human-induced climate change is making extreme weather events, including heatwaves and droughts, more frequent and intense. They in turn increase the risk of fires, which emit climate-heating greenhouse gases.

Fires have blazed across Europe, particularly in France, Greece and Portugal, making 2022 a record year for wildfires on the continent.

The fire in the UNESCO-designated park restarted Tuesday after being brought under control five days earlier, and is estimated to have already consumed around 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of land

Villagers try to use a water bomb as a wildfire advances in Orjais, Covilha council in central Portugal, on Tuesday

Locals react to watching a wildfire advancing in Orjais, Covilha council in central Portugal, on Tuesday

The Serra da Estrela fire started on August 6 outside the central town of Covilha and authorities say they have deployed 390 fire engines and 14 planes and helicopters in efforts to control it.

Firefighters, who hope to keep the fire from spreading further before temperatures are forecast to rise again Friday, have thrown a 160-kilometre (95-mile) cordon around the area, Fernandes told reporters.

The blaze has left 27 people injured, including three seriously, while 45 people have been evacuated as a precaution since Monday.

Residents in the village of Orjais in the foothills of the mountain range helped fight back the flames which came within a few dozen metres (feet) of their homes.

‘It was chaos’, Fatima Cardoso, 62, said.

Authorities are concerned about the impact of the fire on wildlife, as Serra da Estrela is Portugal’s largest natural conservation area known for its animal diversity, including wildcats and lizards.

‘We have not yet reached the end of this critical period for fires,’ Interior Minister Jose Luis Carneiro warned after meeting with meteorologists.

The upcoming heatwave is forecast to last into September, which Carneiro said was set to be drier and hotter than usual.

Smoke from the Portugal fire reached Spain’s capital, Madrid, about 240 miles to the east, on Tuesday.

So far this year, Spain has suffered 391 wildfires, fuelled by scorching temperatures and drought conditions.

A firefighter runs with a hose as a wildfire burns trees in Orjais, Covilha council in central Portugal, on

A local woman cries as she watches the wildfire advance towards her village in Orjais, Covilha council in central Portugal, on Tuesday

The Serra da Estrela fire started on August 6 outside the central town of Covilha and authorities say they have deployed 390 fire engines and 14 planes and helicopters in efforts to control it. Pictured: The wildfire in Portugal on Tuesday

This year’s fires in Spain have been particularly devastating, destroying more than three times the area consumed by wildfires in the whole of 2021, which amounted to 84,827 hectares, the figures show.

Portugal has suffered 195 wildfires so far this year, which have ravaged 84,717 hectares of land, EFFIS figures show.

Meanwhile, Serbians are fighting to keep the Danube open for cargo barges and cruise ships as drought and record high-temperatures have narrowed the river considerably.

The navigable channel of western Europe’s longest river, a trade and transport artery that passes through ten countries, is usually several hundred yards wife where it flows through the Serbian city of Novi Sad.

But drought and extremely high temperature have now reduced that to a narrow lane and Serbian sunseekers have flocked to the riverside beaches in Novi Sad to wade across the Danube.

Officials are desperately trying to keep the Danube open by dredging, with the water depth no more than waist high across almost half of the river’s width.

‘We have deployed almost (our) entire (dredging) capacity… We are struggling to keep out waterways navigable along their full length,’ Veljko Kovacevic, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transportation, told Reuters.

The same weather fronts – viewed by scientists as a consequence of global warming – have snarled river traffic on vital arteries in other parts of Europe, notably the Rhine in Germany and Italy’s Po. Water levels in France’s Loire are also close to record lows.

An aerial view shows a branch of the Loire River as historical drought hits France, in Loireauxence, France, on Tuesday

Drought and extremely high temperature have now reduced the Danube river to a narrow lane and Serbian sunseekers have flocked to the riverside beaches in Novi Sad to wade across the river

The wreck of a ship that sunk during World War II is revealed by the unusually low water level of the River Danube near Vamosszabadi, nortwestern Hungary on Wednesday

Cracked and dry earth is seen in a pond, as an historical drought hits France, in Tourtour, France, on Tuesday

Some of Switzerland’s best-known lakes are also now at their lowest level ever for August.

‘There is a low water situation in Switzerland, especially on the central plateau and in the southern part of Ticino,’ the country’s southernmost canton, said Michele Oberhansli, from the Federal Office for the Environment’s hydrology division.

‘The reason for the existing situation is a precipitation deficit in the whole year of 2022, which affects the whole of Switzerland, as well as many other European countries,’ she said.

Lakes Constance, Lucerne, Lugano and Walen ‘are currently recording water levels that have never been so low in an August month since measurements began’, said Oberhansli.

Meanwhile Lakes Zug and Maggiore ‘continue to show values well below average’.

The shores of Lake Maggiore mark the lowest point in Switzerland, normally at 193 metres above sea level.

Except the lakes in the Jura region in the northwest and Lake Thun, the levels of all the other larger Swiss lakes are also below the long-term average.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for Switzerland’s Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

A layer of ice – 15 metres thick in 2012 – has covered the Tsanfleuron Pass between two glaciers since at least the Roman era.

But most of it has gone and the ice on the pass will have melted away completely by the end of September, a ski resort said last week.

In Germany, energy generation has been impaired. The same is true in Serbia, where meteorological data shows the water depth at less than half the usual August level on the Danube and its other major navigable waterway, the Sava.

In both countries, the low water levels have impeded the transportation of coal, which in Serbia is vital for powering the winter output of thermal plants that account for about two thirds of Serbia’s electricity output.

The state-run EPS power utility said this month that the low water flow so far this year had caused a 27 per cent year-on-year drop in production at hydropower plants.

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