Italy probably cracks heat record: But the maximum is still ahead - fires claim the next fatality

The people of Italy are currently being hit by extreme heat and devastating forest fires.

A quick easing of the situation is not in sight.

Grotteria / Palermo - The current heat wave and forest fires have been hard on people in the Mediterranean region for days.

In Italy, the islands of Sardinia and Sicily as well as the Calabria region have so far been affected by the fires.

The Ministry of Health has now issued the highest heat wave level three for many Italian cities for Thursday and Friday.

Heat and forest fires in Italy: 48.8 degrees in Sicily - European record probably broken

These include Bari on the southern Adriatic coast, the capital Rome, Palermo in Sicily and Trieste in the northeast.

There the meteorologists expect very hot temperatures that could scratch the 40-degree mark.

According to the Ansa news agency, the previous heat record in Europe was broken on Wednesday (August 11) in the province of Syracuse in Sicily.

According to this, 48.8 degrees should have been measured there.

The value has yet to be officially confirmed before the record is considered broken.

The previous maximum value was measured in 1977 in Athens and the city of Elefsina, about 30 kilometers to the west, at 48 degrees.

Greece is also currently experiencing an “unprecedented heat wave”, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently stated.

Forest fires in Italy: flames claim further deaths

In addition to the extraordinarily high temperatures in the Mediterranean area, devastating forest fires have occurred in both Greece and Italy.

Vacation locations are also affected.

According to Italian media reports, the flames claimed another person to be killed.

As the news agency Ansa reports, a pensioner died on his property in the village of Grotteria in the southern Italian region of Calabria.

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The forest fires in Italy left a trail of devastation in many places.

© Luigi Salsini / dpa

In a matter of minutes, flames would have surrounded his house so that he could no longer escape. “Another victim of the fires,” wrote the mayor of the Reggio Calabria metropolitan area in the extreme south of Calabria, Giuseppe Falcomatà, on his Facebook page. A man and a woman died last week in connection with the flames in this region.

"Again flames, again danger, again incalculable damage, our mountains and our hills continue to burn," continued Falcomatà.

Calabria is currently one of the most fire-affected areas in Italy.

The fires are blazing in and around the Aspromonte National Park, a mountain park listed by Unesco for its unique landscape.

The fire brigade continues to fight tirelessly against the flames.

The military is also on duty.

(ph / dpa)

List of rubric lists: © Luigi Salsini