Deadly fires raging in Greece and other European countries advanced on Wednesday, destroying homes and threatening nature reserves during a third successive wave of extreme temperatures.
The summer wildfires have struck countries across the region, prompting the European Union to expand its support, sending two Spanish firefighting planes to Tunisia after wildfires in neighboring Algeria left at least 34 people dead in recent days.More wildfires broke out Wednesday in the central mainland, with the most serious near the city of Volos, where outlying villages and a nearby industrial zone were ordered evacuated.
New evacuations were ordered overnight on the islands of Corfu, Evia and Rhodes, where thousands of tourists were moved to safety over the weekend. Rhodes resident Philippos Karageorgiou lamented how the blazes destroyed “forest areas with virgin forest of several years ... from herbs to anything you can imagine, and Rhodes was famous for all of these.”Following three days of destruction, most major fires in Algeria have been contained or put out, thanks to a huge mobilization of aerial and ground resources as well as falling temperatures, authorities said.
Fires in August 2022 claimed 37 lives in the northeastern Taraf region. July 2021 saw the most significant damage in recent years, with at least 90 deaths in the northern Tizi-Ouzou region, 33 of them soldiers.The bodies of two older people were found in a home that had been consumed by flames near the Palermo airport, on the island of Sicily, which had been closed temporarily because of the encroaching flames, according to Italian news reports.
The blaze near the coastal town of Cascais, 30 kilometers west of Lisbon, was brought under control early Wednesday, helped by cooler temperatures. Firefighters remained in the area to watch for any further flare-ups as temperatures and winds rose again Wednesday. Fears rose that it might spread deep into the nearby Sintra-Cascais Natural Park. No injuries were reported.
Teams were also battling two fires near the towns of Kinik and Odemis in the western coastal province of Izmir, Anadolu said. At least three villages near Kinik were evacuated as a precaution.Officials said that sparks from a brush cutter set off a wildfire on Gran Canaria island off the northwest coast of Africa. The fire in the la Caldera de Los Marteles volcanic area started when a worker using the cutter was clearing land with two others, island president Antonio Morales told reporters.
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