Dry soils and heat records are currently driving the devastating fires in southern Europe. In Athens, the fires are already reaching the suburbs. Meteorologists give little hope of an early recovery.
Athens / Istanbul – meter-high flames eat their way through forests and bushes on the slopes of the Turkish Riviera, black billows of smoke darken the blue sky.
On the country’s Mediterranean coast – actually a holiday paradise for local and foreign tourists at this time of year – devastating fires have been raging for days. In Italy and Greece, too, where the capital Athens is also affected, flames leave entire areas charred. There are also forest and wildfires in the south of Bulgaria.
A fire spiraled out of control in the northern suburbs of Athens on Tuesday. Four large towns were evacuated. Thousands of people had to seek refuge in other parts of the Greek capital. The state offered hotel rooms for the coming nights. The flames raged between the houses in the Athens suburbs of Varybobi and Acharnes on Tuesday evening.
Residents report from the “hell”
Some houses were blazing, as the state television (ERT) showed. Residents had left the affected areas in a panic. “Hell is behind us,” a resident called from his car to reporters on site. Thick billows of smoke were visible from all parts of Athens. Ashes fell on the city.
“Our primary goal is to save human lives,” said the Greek Minister for Civil Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis after a crisis meeting on state television. There were also smaller fires on the Peloponnese peninsula and on the Greek-Turkish border on the Evros river, as the fire brigade announced. Initially, nothing was known about the victims in Greece.
The fires on the island of Sicily, Sardinia and the Adriatic also raged in tourist areas or sometimes directly on the beach. A number of villages were evacuated and tourists were brought to safety in some cases on boats. In Italy, the south, the large islands and parts of the Adriatic coast were particularly hard hit.
More than 150 fires in Turkey
Over 150 fires have broken out in Turkey since last Wednesday. Any help came too late for eight people there. A German-Turkish couple was among the dead, as reported by the Turkish media. The man and woman were found lifeless on a path near their home in Manavgat in the Antalya region. The Federal Foreign Office did not confirm the reports on Tuesday for the time being. According to the government-affiliated Turkish news agency Demirören Haber Ajansi (DHA), the German-born couple tried to escape to a nearby well. The fires in Turkey are mainly raging on the Mediterranean coast, particularly in the regions of Antalya, Mugla and Adana. Cattle such as cows and chickens as well as animals living in the forests died in great numbers in the flames.
“The forests in the Mediterranean region are being ravaged by a new generation of fires,” said a message from WWF. The environmental organization fears “that this year more than half a million hectares of forest will go up in flames in the entire Mediterranean region”.
Turkey and Greece have been experiencing a heat wave with extreme temperatures for days. Sometimes it is over 40 degrees, “the soil is drying out, there has been no precipitation for a long time,” said Andreas Friedrich, press spokesman for the German Weather Service (DWD), the German Press Agency.
Also arsonists on the way
There can be many triggers for the fires. In Italy, for example, police arrested two arsonists in Sicily. The Carabinieri caught the two men, aged 80 and 25, in the act on Monday in the central province of Enna, a statement said on Tuesday. Accordingly, they were about to set a fire in the area of the Monti Nebrodi mountains, a well-known natural area in Sicily, some of which is under nature protection.
In Turkey, the fires are also fueling political debate. From the beginning, criticism of the equipment of the emergency services was particularly loud on social media. Too few fire-fighting planes, too little preparation for such crises. According to the Turkish Aviation Association, Turkey has 3 fire fighting planes and 17 helicopters. For comparison: Greece has more than 40 fire-fighting planes and 25 helicopters. The government admitted the mistake, and more planes were requested from abroad to support the fire-fighting work. The European Union sent three planes from Croatia and Spain for deletion. Hundreds of helpers came from Azerbaijan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also criticized. A video often shared on social media shows Erdogan throwing packaged tea from a rapidly passing bus at people on the roadside on his journey to the disaster area. A person in uniform crouches so as not to be hit by the tea package. The video has been viewed by many as evidence of the government’s inability to adequately respond to the emergency.
Electricity consumption increases
Electricity consumption in these countries increases with the heat. The Greek Ministry of Energy called on all citizens not to set the air conditioning to very low temperatures. “26 degrees and no more,” said the ministry. In Turkey, the electricity went out in numerous places in the country on Monday, the reason being the sharp rise in consumption with the heat, according to a statement from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
Precipitation was not in sight in any of the three countries until the end of next week, according to the DWD. The dry and hot weather will continue for the next ten days. In view of the drought, the risk of fire will be enormous even after this heat wave has ended, warned meteorologists: if winds set in, devastating fires could occur. dpa
