The terror of wildfire has hit Southern Turkey the most and the blaze is continuing to burn for the fifth day in a row.
Many villages have been evacuated in tourist hotspots as eight lives already have been lost to these raging fires. Blazes are also seen burning in Greece, Italy, and Spain.
Five people have been wounded during the evacuation process in Pescara, Italy.
The heatwaves have resulted in the temperature shooting up to 40 C.
Residents and tourists fled the fire destinations from Turkey’s holiday beach sites of Antalya and Mugla in small boats while the coast guard and two navy ships waited out at sea in case a bigger evacuation was required, reported The Northern Daily Leader.
Moreover, in Italy, a fire broke out in the 53-hectare (131-acre) Pineta Dannunziana nature reserve, where about 800 people were evacuated from their homes, including a convent of nuns, as the fires continue to be active on different fronts, reported the Guardian.
Carlo Masci, the mayor of Pescara said, “We had to evacuate several homes and beach resorts due to the smoke. The biggest problem is the hot wind. We are doing the best we can to limit the damage.”
According to Italy’s national fire service, more than 800 blazes were seen burning in the South. And this was right after last week devastation of Sardinia in Italy where the fires burnt more than 20,000 hectares of forest, olive groves, and crops
The fire service tweeted, “In the last 24 hours, firefighters have carried out more than 800 interventions: 250 in Sicily, 130 in Puglia and Calabria, 90 in Lazio, and 70 in Campania.”
According to the European Union data, this year the fire blaze had been far more destructive in nature than the earlier years. Experts believe that climate change has increased both the frequency and intensity of these heatwaves, wrote Physics.Org.
The Coldiretti agricultural organization said, “The cost of the damage caused throughout the northern Italian countryside by the violent storms and hail during this crazy summer amounts to tens of millions of euros,”
The wildfires have hit Turkey in the worst manner possible recorded in a decade destructing 95,000 hectares (235,000 acres) so far this year, compared with an average of 13,516 at the same point in the years between 2008 and 2020.
Turkey’s defense ministry released satellite images showing the extent of the damage, with forest areas turned black and smoke still visible.
A major blaze also was seen burning in Greece on Sunday near Patras. Five villages have been made to evacuate and eight people were hospitalized due to fire burns and respiratory problems.
The mayor of the nearby village of Aigialeias, Dimitris Kalogeropoulos, called it “an immense catastrophe”.
A resident of Lambiri told Greek TV station Skai that all of them slept outside throughout the night and were terrified of waking up in the morning to see a blazing house or no house.
In Spain, firefighters reported that they have managed to put off a fire overnight that broke out at San Juan reservoir, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) east of Madrid.
But the local authorities warned the people to be cautious and alert and to stay away from that reservoir.
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