List of All Articles with Tag 'europe'

More than 40 people have died in wildfires that have engulfed swaths of land in nine Mediterranean countries, destroying homes, livelihoods and forests. Thousands of firefighters worked to contain the blazes as searing temperatures scorched parts of Greece, Italy, Spain, Gran Canaria, Portugal, Turkey, Croatia and France, as well as Algeria and Tunisia. Authorities ordered the fresh evacuations of several communities in central Greece on Wednesday as they battled new fronts in the fires that have been spreading for 10 days. High winds hampered firefighting efforts, and combined with the heatwave, they created a “perfect storm” that allowed flames to spread. Sixty-one wildfires erupted across Greece in just 24 hours, the fire brigade said, with the worst outbreaks near the central town of Velestino, where officials ordered precautionary evacuations. Follow our live coverage of the wildfires and heatwave here But as Athens recorded 40C and northern Turkey 43C, there were hopes the mercury may now have peaked. The entire island of Rhodes, where more than 20,000 holidaymakers and locals were forced to flee at the weekend, was put into a state of emergency. At least seven people have been killed in Italy, which suffered extreme heat in the south and violent storms in the north, and in Algeria, 34 people including 10 soldiers have been killed by flames or smoke in recent days. Those fires also spread to forests in Tunisia, where some cities recorded 49C this week. On the island of Sicily, two elderly people were found dead in a home consumed by flames near Palermo airport, which had been closed temporarily because of encroaching flames, according to news reports. Another woman died after fires prevented an ambulance from reaching her home. Homes and hotels were also evacuated in the Italian regions of Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria. It comes after two Greek pilots were killed in a crash during a low-altitude water drop on Tuesday. The wildfires have released record greenhouse gas emissions this month, the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams) said. The megaton of carbon was nearly double the previous record, set in 2007. Fire crews have been battling more than 500 fires for almost two weeks. Several people have been arrested or fined for accidentally starting fires, but scientists and EU officials say the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires is down to the climate crisis. Without human-induced climate change, wildfires would have been extremely rare, according to World Weather Attribution, a global team of scientists. On Rhodes, a nature reserve was damaged, and fires also burned in Vati and Gennadi. “The fires have started again,” a fire official told The Independent. “A little wind and the fire returns … that’s the problem.” Dozens of firefighters were trying to tame a firefront in the south. Greece’s civil protection agency extended its state of emergency to the whole of Rhodes for six months “to deal with emergencies and manage the consequences of catastrophic forestry fire”, minister Vasilis Papageorgiou said. In the sleepy town of Malonas, volunteers ventured out again to try to keep the fires at bay – having fought back the flames as they approached the night before. “We have no energy, we have no power – not enough to stop this ... We are waiting for the wind to calm down to try again tonight to finish the job, but it is very difficult because after 10 days everyone is very tired,” said a volunteer named Panos. However, a “level 5” alert on Crete on Tuesday was dropped to level 4 on Wednesday, and one fire official said the wildfires that had raged across Greece for more than a week abated on Wednesday. The Greek government tried to contain damage to the reputation of its tourism industry. Tourism minister Olga Kefalogianni stressed that wildfires had affected only a small part of the island. A fire brigade spokesperson, Ioannis Artopoios, said tackling the fires was a significant financial burden for Greece, with firefighting on Rhodes alone costing about €7.5m (£6.4m) so far. In Italy, the government was meeting to declare a state of emergency in regions worst hit and introduce a furlough scheme for workers most exposed to the heatwave. The country’s firefighters said they had battled nearly 1,400 fires between Sunday and Tuesday, including 650 in Sicily and 390 in Calabria, where a bedridden 98-year-old man was killed as flames consumed his home. Planes were also trying to douse the flames on the hills around Palermo on Wednesday. In Croatia, water-dropping planes and more than 100 firefighters held back a blaze before it reached houses in the walled town of Dubrovnik. In Portugal, more than 500 firefighters tackled a blaze near Lisbon. Around 90 people were forced to leave their homes, along with 800 animals taken from farms under threat. Read More Where are the wildfires? The nine affected countries mapped Greece wildfires: What is the Fire Weather Index and which areas could face wildfires in the future?

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Firefighters and civilians battling the nine-day wildfires ravaging Rhodes are contending with continuous flare-ups fuelled by unpredictable winds, as temperatures neared a scorching 40C. Greece’s civil protection agency extended the state of emergency across the entirety of Rhodes on Wednesday, which will remain in place for six months, “to deal with emergencies and manage the consequences of catastrophic forestry fire”. In the town of Malonas, which was evacuated on Saturday, The Independent watched on alongside exhausted volunteers as a section of the charred forest nearby reignited. The handful of volunteers gathered outside St George’s Church stood up to watch as a firefighting plane flew overhead, dousing the flames in water – as smoke continued to rise skywards. They expected to venture out again alongside hundreds, if not thousands, of other civilians on Wednesday night to do what they could to keep the fires at bay – having fought back the flames as they encroached on the sleepy inland town just the night before. “We have no energy, we have no power – not enough to stop this ... We are waiting for the wind to calm down to try again tonight to finish the job, but it is very difficult because after 10 days everyone is very tired,” a volunteer named Panos said, adding: “I’m going to sleep now for one hour.” He spoke as firefighters were mobilised to the nearby village of Apollona, while fires also burned further south in Vati and Gennadi. “The fires have started again,” a fire service official told The Independent. “A little wind and the fire returns … That’s the problem.” Having been told to evacuate both Malonas and nearby Kalathos at the weekend, Miles and Tristan, both in their 50s and originally from England, returned to Tristan’s house in Malonas on Wednesday to bring his four cats home. After receiving the “stressful” emergency alert telling them to leave Kalathos for either Kallithea – which they felt at the time was unsafe – or Lindos, where locals had already been told it was safe to return and where they knew a hotel manager who could put them up for the night. “Even if we’re just camping down on sofas in the hotel reception, it’s shelter, whereas if we went to Kallithea we would literally be on the street,” said Tristan. Speaking in the entrance to Tristan’s home as a firefighting plane flew overhead, dropping water a short distance away, the pair said they now planned to stay put. “We’re fed up with it now,” said Miles, an artist who has lived in Rhodes for 17 years. Tristan added: “Also, now [the authorities] are willing to allow everyone to help [keep flare-ups at bay], whereas before they just didn’t want the complications of it – non-Greek speakers being where they are [with] no skills, no car. I haven’t even got boots. They said ‘what are you going to do: walk over the ground in trainers? They’re just going to melt.” Describing a “pattern” of flare-ups each afternoon, Tristan said: “It’s been almost identical for three days, it’s really weird.” Miles added: “Clear in the morning. By the afternoon, the sky’s gone dark ... there’s smoke everywhere, and you can see it for miles.” However, the skies remained clear as they spoke – prior to the individual flare-up witnessed by The Independent some 15 minutes later. “That’s why the helicopters are flying over now, they’re damping down near the edges to try and make sure it doesn’t come back,” said Miles. Read More Infernos, black skies and fleeing tourists: Greece wildfires in pictures as blazes ravage Corfu and Rhodes Summer holidays to fire-hit Rhodes on sale for just £295 – half the usual price Tragic 'last words' of hero pilots who died in plane crash fighting Greek wildfires Tourists flying into Greece inferno reveal why they refuse to cancel holiday