Dozens of municipalities had to be evacuated this Sunday in the touristy south of Turkey after five days of fires that have caused six deaths, while other Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Italy or Spain also fought the flames.
With high temperatures and strong winds, this summer’s fire season is being significantly more destructive than in previous years, according to data from the European Union (EU).
Many experts link this phenomenon to climate change, which increases the frequency and intensity of these forest fires, which are common in the Mediterranean basin.
Turkey is experiencing its worst fires in at least a decade, with almost 95,000 hectares burned this year, when the average between 2008 and 2020 at this time was 13,516 hectares.
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A neighborhood in the resort town of Bodrum was evacuated, the Turkish network CNN said, because the strong wind was fanning the flames from the nearby Milas district.
Unable to leave by road, 540 residents were transferred to hotels by boat, the chain said.
There were also evacuations in the city of Sirtkoy in Antalya province, NTV television reported.
Temperatures will continue to be high, around 40 ° C, in the region after registering record levels last month.
On July 20, the meteorological service registered 49.1 ºC in the municipality of Cizre (southeast).
Satellite images provided by the Turkish Defense Ministry showed vast areas of forest blackened and still smoking.
The president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was criticized when it was learned that Turkey has no plans to fight fires despite the fact that a third of its territory is forest and that these fires are a growing problem.
According to data from the European Union, Turkey has suffered 133 fires so far in 2021, compared to an average of 43 at this time of year between 2008 and 2020.
– Greek ‘Catastrophe’ –
Firefighters were also fighting flames in Greece, after a major fire broke out in Patras in the west on Saturday.
Five municipalities were evicted and eight people had to enter the hospital with burns and respiratory problems in the region, which was still on alert.
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The mayor of the nearby Aigialeias municipality, Dimitris Kalogeropoulos, described it as “an immense catastrophe.”
Around 30 houses, barns and stables were consumed by flames in the villages of Ziria, Kamares, Achaias and Labiri.
“We slept outside tonight, scared we were homeless when we woke up,” a Labiri resident told Greek Skai television.
The tourist coastal town of Loggos was also evacuated and its 100 residents and visitors were sent to the nearby town of Aigio.
So far this year, 13,500 hectares burned in Greece, compared to an average of 7,500 hectares in this period between 2008 and 2020, according to EU statistics.
– Fires and storms in Italy –
Italy was hit by fires again after more than 20,000 hectares of forest, olive groves and crops were engulfed by flames in Sardinia last weekend.
This weekend alone, more than 800 fires were declared in the country, especially in the south, according to the Italian fire brigade.
“In the last 24 hours, firefighters carried out more than 800 interventions: 250 in Sicily, 130 in Apulia and Calabria, 90 in Lazio and 70 in Campania,” this body tweeted.
He also indicated that his units were still trying to put out fires in the Sicilian cities of Catania, Palermo and Syracuse.
And while southern Italy burned, the north suffered damaging and intense storms.
“The cost of damage caused in rural parts of northern Italy by storms and hail this crazy summer amounts to tens of millions of euros,” said the Coldiretti agricultural organization.
And in Spain, dozens of firefighters supported by hydrant planes were fighting a fire that started on Saturday afternoon near the San Juan reservoir, 70 kilometers east of Madrid.
The firefighters assured this Sunday that they had managed to stabilize the fire during the night, but the authorities urged the population to move away from the reservoir, a popular bathing place for the people of Madrid.
AFP
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