Pedro Sánchez says next 12 hours will be ‘decisive’ in battle to contain wildfires – Europe live

Authorities fear progress in containing the fires in the Gironde and Madrid regions may be set back by temperatures expected to hit the low 40s

in Brussels

The European Union's crisis-management team is expecting difficult weeks ahead, fearing a further outbreak of wildfires in Italy and Greece as the summer goes on.

A firefighter will focus on protecting people. They will focus on protecting houses, protecting a business, a company, because this is something that matters for all our society. And indeed, sometimes by focusing on that, they cannot extinguish fire, [as] they would do it if it would be just forest.

So this is new, this is worrying. And of course also, this means that we need to adapt our methods of fighting the fires."