Environment Newsroom, (EFE).- Southern Europe and North Africa once again live a summer fueled by forest fires, which -for the moment- have left a tragic balance in Algeria with 34 people dead, in Greece with fires on several islands and thousands of people evacuated and Italy that is fighting the fire on the island of Sicily, where the airport remains closed due to the advance of the flames.
In addition, this Tuesday a Canadair tanker plane, which was participating in efforts to control and put out a forest fire on the Greek island of Euboea, crashed on the side of a mountain near the town of Platanistós, a spokeswoman for local firefighters told EFE.
Two people (pilot and co-pilot) were on the plane, according to local media, who have died.
The heat waves, with high temperatures recorded, together with the lack of rainfall and the dryness of the soil, contribute, according to experts, to creating the right conditions for fires to spread more easily in a summer that has broken records in thermometers and augurs a lot of work for fire brigades and fire-fighting teams.
To this is added the record for the water temperature of the Mediterranean Sea that registers 28 degrees, 4 degrees more than normal in the southeastern area of the Iberian Peninsula, according to the State Meteorological Agency, or between 2 and 3 degrees above normal in the Bay of Biscay; and the presence of haze in the Sahara in various periods since the beginning of summer.
Algeria
This week the situation is not looking any better in Algeria, where a heat wave has been registered for the last few weeks with temperatures of 50 degrees in the shade in the capital -Algiers- and several coastal provinces, which has favored the spread of the fire that has left 34 victims so far, a dozen soldiers among them and several injured.
The fires are registered in 16 cities in northwest Algeria, where some 1,500 people from Fenaya and Zbarbar have also been evacuated, in firefighting operations that have been joined by means of the Army Air Force.
But the meteorological services announce a new heat wave in which up to 48 degrees are expected in the shade, it will affect the entire country and will last until Monday.
In summer, fires are frequent in Algeria, a country with four million hectares of forests, where the fires in 2022 left at least 38 dead and 160 injured, while a year earlier the victims of the fire rose to 90 people, 33 of them soldiers who participated in extinguishing the flames.
Greece
In Greece, the fires have spread very quickly thanks to temperatures that have reached very high values, such as 46.4 on Sunday in the Peloponnese, which has aggravated the advance of the fire that has burned at least 34,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land throughout the country, according to the Kathimerini newspaper.
On the island of Rhodes, a fire is out of control for the eighth consecutive day and some 19,000 people have been evacuated over the weekend and, according to Greek media, more than 70,000 tourists have left the territory, despite the fact that tourists continue to arrive on the island.
The flames have burned more than 14,000 hectares of forest, several houses and an as yet unquantified number of animals have died, in addition to threatening a rare species of fallow deer known as dama-dama, which is endemic to Rhodes and Mesopotamia.
While in Corfu and Euboea, in north-eastern Greece, fire brigades continue to fight the fire that continues out of control for the third day in a row.
In Corfu, the fire is still active in bush areas, and the 2,500 tourists who were evacuated on Monday have been able to return to their accommodation.
In Euboea, where the Canadair tanker plane crashed, the authorities have also reported that a farmer has been missing since last Sunday, and the advance of the fire forced the evacuation of nine towns and reached the towns of Platanistós and Potami, burning several houses.
Italia
In Italy, a heat wave, with very high temperatures and sirocco winds, are favoring the spread of fires in Sicily, where 47 degrees were registered this Monday, a record temperature that exceeded the previous record of 44.8 in 1999 and where 43 fires were registered, especially in the province of Palermo.
In Palermo, the fire affects the Palermo-Mazara Del Vallo highway and some exits have been closed, and it threatens to reach the Cervelló de Palermo hospital and the airport facilities.
In addition, another fire threatens the Falcone and Borsellino airport of Palermo, which closed until mid-morning, while the heat wave is expected to leave very high maximum temperatures in the three metropolitan cities and will be high in the areas of Palermo, Trapani, Enna, Messina Catania and Syracuse, according to Schifani.
In Turkey, firefighters are fighting to control the forest fire that started this morning in the district of Kemer, in the province of Antalya, where the state hospital and ten houses near the fire were evacuated.