California's governor declared a statewide emergency on Sunday as a huge blaze, fanned by strong winds, forced mass evacuations and power blackouts as it bore down on towns in the famed Sonoma wine region.

Wildfires raged across California on Friday, destroying homes and forcing evacuations, as over 1,000 firefighters tackled flames in the southern part of the state alone.

Greece said Monday it wanted to start sending back thousands of migrants to Turkey, a day after a deadly fire sparked riots at an overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos.

European officials on Thursday unveiled the new RescEU emergency response system which will significantly increase the bloc's reserve of fire-fighting aircraft as climate change challenges continue to mount.

A fire raged out of control on the Spanish holiday island of Gran Canaria on Monday, forcing evacuations as flames rose so high even water-dropping planes could not operate in what was dubbed an ‘environmental tragedy’.

Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris is still at risk of collapse after being gutted by a fire in April, with more stonework falling during the recent heatwave in the French capital, the government said on Wednesday.

Aircraft dumped water early on Wednesday to douse the flames of a wildfire on the Greek island of Evia that had prompted the evacuation of villages and spurred an appeal for help from elsewhere in Europe.

Paris officials on Tuesday downplayed the risk of lead poisoning from the massive fire that tore through Notre-Dame cathedral in April, as tests continue to show worrying levels of the toxic metal at nearby schools.

At least 17 people were killed when a fire broke out in a four-storey commercial building in the city of Surat in India's western state of Gujarat on Friday, police said.

The fire that ravaged the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris last month released lead particles that have settled in potentially dangerous amounts in areas surrounding the church, officials said Thursday.

At least 13 people on board a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane were killed on Sunday when the plane caught fire mid-air and made an emergency landing at a Moscow airport on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.

Oman Cables Industry (OCI), a Prysmian Group company and Electro Trade Company (ETC), its strategic distributor in the region, recently held a customer meet and technical seminar on fire survival cables and wires.