A 22-year-old fireman died while fighting a wildfire in the Savoie region in the French Alps, the French interior minister said on Wednesday. Wildfires have raged across southern Europe since last week and in France have forced thousands to leave their homes. "It was with deep sadness that I learned this morning of the death of a young volunteer firefighter from SDIS 73, aged 22, who died whilst on duty after spending part of the night fighting a forest fire in Savoie," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on X. Heatwaves in France and across western Europe in May and June have parched vast areas of land, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year. Temperatures are forecast to once again hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in southwest France this week. The European Commission has pre-positioned a record 777 firefighters from 14 European countries in high-risk areas across Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Portugal and France activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism over the weekend due to wildfires burning simultaneously and scorching thousands of hectares. The Trevillach wildfire in France's Pyrenees-Orientales has burned 4,900 hectares (12,108 acres). It did not advance overnight, the local prefect said on X, allowing residents of a dozen villages to return home. The blaze, however, is not fully contained.
