Italy, Greece and Turkey continue to fight countless uncontrolled forest fires. In many places there are dramatic scenes. At the same time, the next heat wave begins.
Athens / Evia – In a tremendous show of strength, residents on the Greek island of Evia, together with firefighters and volunteers, saved several villages from the flames on Monday night.
Although houses were burned down on the outskirts of towns such as Artemisio, Gouves and Pefki, the town centers are still intact, reported the newspaper “Kathimerini”. However, many villages are still surrounded by flames.
Although the wall of fire had already moved towards the villages on Sunday afternoon, according to the residents in some areas there was little or no support from the air. The Greek civil defense chief Nikos Chardalias justified this in the evening with the bad conditions – the extremely heavy smoke development restricted the view to such an extent that some operations were impossible.
On Monday morning, satellite images in the north of the island showed slightly fewer sources of fire than on Sunday – presumably because most of the forest has now been burned and the flames can no longer find food, as the TV station Skai reported. So far, there have been different statements about the extent of the damage, the only agreement being that they are enormous. Several Greek media mentioned an area of 50,000 hectares.
Evacuations in Italy
In Italy, more than 400 people were taken from their accommodations on Sunday evening due to fires around the Italian Adriatic community of Campomarino. The authorities evacuated hotels, campsites and houses in the district of Campomarino Lido by the sea.
A video from the fire brigade showed how dense smoke ran through the streets and flames eroded through bushes to a café. The Italian civil protection authority is also sending reinforcements to the region of Calabria, which has been badly affected by forest fires. There it burned in the Aspromonte National Park, among other places.
Turkey: 150,000 hectares of land burned
Five uncontrolled forest fires were counted in Turkey. In Mugla, southwest Turkey, emergency services and volunteers continued to fight the flames. The extent of the damage is increasing. According to Doganay Tolunay, forest engineer at Istanbul University, an estimated 150,000 hectares of land were burned across the country, including forests, fields, meadows and entire villages – an area more than twice the size of Lake Constance.
New heat wave is coming
The weather will make the situation even more difficult in the coming days: From Monday onwards, a new heat wave will begin in southern Europe, with temperatures in many places rising to over 40 degrees. Heat waves will also be a topic at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which today presents its new report on the state of knowledge on global warming. He wants to dispel any last doubts about the responsibility of humans for climate change. The report by 234 international experts deals, among other things, with the risk of extreme events such as the recent heat waves in Greece and Turkey and the floods in Germany. dpa
