A heat wave and numerous fires hit three of the most popular holiday destinations. The Turkish Mediterranean coast and Greece suffer from glowing heat, in Sicily flames are blazing.
Athens / Catania / Istanbul – Greece, Italy and Turkey have been plagued by the consequences of climate change for days. Fires and unbearable temperatures are the symptoms, weather experts emphasize again and again.
After a weekend with values around 44 degrees, the temperatures in Greece continue to rise day by day. For Monday and Tuesday, the weather department expected up to 47 degrees. Fires are raging on the Italian Mediterranean island of Sicily. Rome already asked for European help. And in Turkey, thousands of emergency services are fighting forest and bush fires in the Mediterranean region for the sixth day in a row. Eight people died.
On the other hand, the fire brigade in Greece was able to bring a major fire on the holiday island of Rhodes under control on Monday using fire-fighting planes and helicopters. Hotels and other tourist facilities were not affected, as the civil defense in Athens announced on Monday. “It’s the worst heat wave since 1987,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on state television. The risk of fire remains very high, he added.
The head of the Italian civil protection authority requested the activation of the European mechanism with which, for example, fire-fighting planes from other EU countries could come to Italy to provide support, according to a statement on Sunday night. “Yesterday we had a dramatic day,” said Fabrizio Curcio on Monday on the Italian private television channel Canale 5. On their Telegram channel, the Italian fire brigade announced that they have had around 37 400 missions across the country since June 15 for this forest fire season Had bushfires. That is 16,000 more than in the same period last year. Sicily, Apulia and Calabria are particularly affected.
Thousands were also deployed against forest and bush fires in Turkey. Of 132 fires, 125 were brought under control, said the Minister of Forestry and Agriculture, Bekir Pakdemirli, on Monday, according to the state news agency Anadolu. Meanwhile, the European Union is sending support to Turkey. Three fire-fighting planes, one from Croatia and two from Spain, had been mobilized, according to a communication from the EU Commission.
A major concern of the government in Athens is that there could be power outages lasting several hours. Countless air conditioning systems have been running at full speed for days. The Ministry of Energy called on all citizens not to set the systems to the lowest possible temperature. “26 degrees and no more,” it said. Cooking with ovens should also be avoided. Washing machines should not be used around lunchtime, when energy consumption is highest.
It was unclear when the heat would subside. Some meteorologists feared that the high temperatures could last for a few more days. This is very dangerous, especially for the elderly and young children. “Caution! The heat stroke is lurking ”, doctors warn over and over again on the Greek radio. dpa
