Heat and fire generate overlapping problems for much of southern Europe | CNN

Nearly 20 people are still unaccounted for after a wildfire ripped through a tinder-dry area close to Spain’s Mediterranean coast on Thursday, according to regional officials. At least 12 people were killed by the rapidly spreading blaze, and four received severe burns. The wildfire – near Almeria on the Mediterranean – is the first in Europe this year to claim multiple victims, but just one of several that have claimed thousands of hectares in recent weeks as much of southern Europe endures unprecedented heat. This week has also seen two widespread fires in France, with one in the Pyrenees forcing the evacuation of 12,000 people, as well as a major fire in central Portugal, with satellite imagery showing plumes of smoke drifting well into the Atlantic. Summer fires in southern Europe are nothing new, but they are happening earlier in the year and are of growing intensity, according to researchers. In much of France and Spain, an exceptionally wet winter left a lot of vegetation that quickly turned to tinder as three successive heatwaves sent temperatures into the high-thirties Celsius. That has led to a spike in the number of larger fires, according to data from the European