Wildfires rage across the Mediterranean destroying land and claiming lives
CNN —
Two elderly people found burned to death in their home in Italy are among the at least 40 people known to have died as wildfires rage across huge swaths of the Mediterranean.
Countries including Italy, Greece and Algeria are deploying thousands of firefighters to battle the devastating fires, which have been fueled by scorching temperatures and strong winds.
The highest death toll is in Algeria, where wildfires ripped through 11 provinces in the North African nation, killing at least 34 people, state broadcaster EPTV News reported Monday, citing the country’s interior ministry and local groups. Ten of the victims were soldiers, Reuters reported.
More than 8,000 firefighters have been deployed to control the blazes as residents living near forested areas were evacuated, according to EPTV.
The situation now appears to be under control, according to Algeria’s Civil Protection services, which said that it has managed to contain all wildfires, in a statement on Wednesday
A forest fire rages on in the mountainous area of Bourbatache, Algeria, Monday, July 24, 2023. Nasri Elyas/AP
The Algerian Ministry of the Interior announced at least 34 deaths in multiple forest fires across the country. Billel Bensalem/APP/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the extreme heat baking Europe, is battling 10 fires in the south of the country including blazes in Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo and Puglia, where 2,000 people were evacuated from three hotels on Tuesday evening.
The fires claimed at least four lives on Tuesday, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
A 98-year-old man died as flames reached his home in the coastal city of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, according to ANSA.
In Palermo in Sicily, two people in their 70s were found burned to death in their home near Palermo and an 88-year-old woman died when an ambulance called for her was blocked by the fires.
In some parts of Sicily, temperatures reached 47.4 Celsius (117.3 Fahrenheit) on Monday, edging close to the European temperature record of 48.8 degrees Celsius, set in 2021.
Italy’s meteorological agency said that temperatures will dip slightly over the coming days in the south before climbing again towards the weekend.
The country’s Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said on Tuesday that Italy was experiencing one of the most difficult days in decades. “The climate upheaval demands a step change from all of us, with no alibis for anyone,” he said on Twitter.
Residents watch a fire burning in Capaci, near Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse/AP
An abandoned shed engulfed in flames is one of several fires that spread this evening, fuelled by strong winds in the province of Catania, Italy, on July 25, 2023. Fabrizio Villa/Getty Images
In Greece, wildfires continue to ravage parts of the country, with the main fronts burning out of control located in the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia.
Over the weekend nearly 20,000 people were evacuated from homes and tourist resorts in Rhodes. Since Monday evening, authorities have ordered two villages to evacuate in Corfu, one in Rhodes and one in Evia, according to the Greek fire service.
Maria Feggou, a volunteer with the Hellenic Red Cross fighting the blaze in Rhodes, said that the situation is difficult to describe. “Half of the island is in flames, and it seems uncontrollable,” Feggou told CNN on Tuesday.
In Evia, two pilots aged 27 and 34 died when their aircraft crashed during a firefighting operation over the island, the Greek Air Force said in a statement. Greece’s armed forces announced three days of national mourning.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a government cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the fires were “a tough test” for the country. He warned that “things will probably get worse, not better, with warmer temperatures, more drought, stronger winds.”
The Greek weather agency has warned of rising temperatures in some parts of the country, while the island of Crete has been placed under a state of alarm for extreme risk of fire.
Flames burn a tree in Vati village, on the Aegean Sea island of Rhodes, southeastern Greece, on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Petros Giannakouris/AP
An aerial view shows burnt vehicles and trees after a fire near Vati, on the Greek Aegean island of Rhodes, on July 26, 2023. Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images
In Turkey, forest wildfires ignited Monday night in the southern Mediterranean province of Antalya, according to Antalya Municipality’s statement.
Antalya’s Mayor Muhittin Bocek said Tuesday, “Our efforts to extinguish the forest fire that broke out last night in Antalya’s Kemer district continue.”
Bocek said 180 hectares of land were affected and the fire was hard to bring under control due to the steepness of the area and the strength of the winds, according to the statement.
A total of 10 homes near the fire were evacuated as a precaution. Six people are being treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation, according to Turkey’s state media Anadolu.
Fires have also broken out in Croatia, south of the city of Dubrovnik, according to the Croatian fire service. Around 130 firefighters and two aircraft have been battling the fires, which are now under control, the fire service said in a statement on Wednesday.
Scientists are clear that the kind of extreme weather, which is causing destruction across swaths of the Mediterranean, will become more frequent and more severe as long as the world continues to burn planet-heating fossil fuels.
Without the human-caused climate crisis, Europe’s searing heat wave, which has baked several southern European countries and primed the land for wildfires, would have been “virtually impossible,” according to a report on Tuesday.
Source: CNN
