Fires rage in southern Europe, evacuated villagers and tourists

Fires are on the increase in Europe, in the middle of the summer.

Dozens of villages and hotels were evacuated on Sunday in the touristic south of Turkey, in the face of the increase in fires which have been raging for five days and have already killed six, while several regions of Greece, Italy and Spain were also ravaged by fire.

These countries around the Mediterranean, very dependent on tourism revenues from which they have been deprived because of the pandemic, are faced this summer with scorching temperatures and forest fires more numerous than usual.

Turkey is currently suffering the worst fires in at least a decade, with nearly 95,000 hectares burned since January, compared to an average of 13,516 at this point in the year between 2008 and 2020. In the upscale Turkish resort of Bodrum, a neighborhood was evacuated, as the flames were fanned by strong winds from the nearby Milas district, CNN Turkey TV reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flying over the fires in Turkey on Saturday.

Reuters MURAT CETINMUHURDAR / PPO

Without being able to take the road, 540 people were evacuated by boat, according to the channel.

In the tourist town of Antalya, other evacuations also took place, according to the channel NTV.

40 ° C forecast in Antalya

Temperatures are expected to remain high after record highs reached last month.

For example, it was 49.1 ° C on July 20 in Cizre, Anatolia, in the extreme south-east of Turkey.

Mercury is expected to rise to 40 ° C in Antalya on Monday, according to forecasts.

The Turkish Defense Ministry released satellite images showing the extent of the damage to the forests, black with soot and with fumes still visible.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the target of criticism when it turned out that Turkey did not have water bombers as the fire problem worsened in the country with a third of its territory. wooded.

The main opposition party, the CHP (Republican People's Party, Social Democrat), accused the Turkish president of having dismantled the infrastructure of a semi-public organization which held water bombers.

According to data released by the European Union, Turkey has been ravaged by 133 fires in 2021 so far, compared to an average of 43 between 2008 and 2020.

Burnt houses in Greece

In Greece, firefighters were also fighting the blaze on Sunday, in the northwest of the Peloponnese peninsula, near the city of Patras.

Eight people were hospitalized with respiratory problems and burns, in hospitals in the region which remain on the alert, according to civil protection.

Five villages were evacuated because of this major fire which broke out on Saturday with scorching temperatures.

"The disaster is immense," said Dimitris Kalogeropoulos, the mayor of Aigialeias, one of the villages close to the fire.

A firefighter near Patras (Greece) this Sunday.

Reuters / Costas Baltas COSTAS BALTAS

In the villages of Ziria, Kamares, Achaias, Labiri, nearly thirty houses, agricultural sheds and stables burned down, entire fields of olive trees were destroyed, according to the local newspaper Patrastimes.

“We slept outside at night, terrified that we would no longer have a home when we woke up!

», Tells on Greek television Skai a resident of Labiri.

Firefighters carried out more than 800 interventions in Italy

The seaside resort of Loggos was also evacuated.

A hundred residents and tourists were transported Saturday evening by the port police to the port of Aigio, a few kilometers from the village.

Almost 13,500 ha have burned in Greece since the start of the year, compared to an average of 7,500 at this stage of the year between 2008 and 2020.

After devastating fires in Sardinia last weekend, Italy recorded more than 800 fires this weekend, mainly in the south of the country, firefighters said on Twitter.

"In the last 24 hours, firefighters have carried out more than 800 interventions: 250 in Sicily, 130 in Puglia and Calabria, 90 in Lazio (the region of Rome) and 70 in Campania," the tweet said.

In Spain, affected in mid-July by a fire in a natural park on the Catalan coast, near the Franco-Spanish border, firefighters were fighting this weekend against a fire near the San Juan reservoir, about 70 km away east of Madrid.