Last Thursday, wildfire swept through the villages of Bédar and Los Gallardos in Spain's Almería province, killing at least 13 people in one of the country's deadliest fires on record. Ten people remain unaccounted for. On Monday, a fire of “exceptional scale” broke out in the historic Fontainebleau forest, 70 kilometres from Paris, forcing evacuations as western Europe endures its third red-alert heatwave this year. Many of the victims in Spain died in their cars while trying to flee the flames. Whole hillside communities — retirees, families, neighbours — have lost loved ones, homes and everything familiar in a single night. We pray for the bereaved and displaced of Almería, for the families evacuated near Paris, and for the hundreds of firefighters and pilots battling the flames — may relief come swiftly, and may these communities rebuild in hope.