The Latest: Drought, heat fuel wildfires in central Portugal.
3:50 p.m. More than 2,000 firefighters are battling nine major wildfires in Portugal, where drought conditions, high temperatures and strong winds are fueling the flames.
Ash floated in the air and vast plumes of smoke covered areas of central Portugal, in the area around Serta, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Lisbon.
Serta is close to Pedrogao Grande, where 64 people died in a wildfire last month.
___ 3 p.m. Albania’s interior ministry says that some 130 firefighters are battling 18 fire spots around the country Wednesday.
Coldiretti said another 20 percent of the bee population is estimated to have become disoriented from the smoke of the fires and died as a result.
Firefighters also were fighting a large blaze in nearby La Londes-Les-Maures.
Almost 1,700 firefighters supported by 17 water-dropping aircraft are tackling wildfires in Portugal, where every summer large areas of woodland are scorched.
The top official of France’s Var region on the Mediterranean coast says that 10,000 people were evacuated as blazes hopscotching around the Riviera tore through the town of La Londe-les-Maures.
The statement said that some 10,000 people – about 3,000 of them campers – were evacuated from La Londe and nearby Bormes and La Lavandou.