Europe Torched by Wildfires
Aug. 25 -- Vicious wildfires are threatening holiday resorts all across the south of Europe.
Greece has declared a state of emergency in Arcadia province in the south, where 10 fires are raging, and Epirius in the north.
Greek Interior Minister Vasso Papandreou, speaking after a late-night cabinet meeting, described the situation in the two provinces as “very serious.”
Greece had requested foreign help to fight the fires, but it had not been forthcoming.
There were 78 forest fires raging all across Greece, the government said. So far this year, more than 300-square kilometers of forest has been lost to the flames.
In Aracdia, six firemen have been injured and the major hydroelectric plant at Megalopolis, where a fire has been raging out of control for five days, is under threat.
Further north, on the border to Albania, an elderly couple, Christofores Kyritsis, 80, and his wife Maria, 78, died trying to flee a fire which engulfed their home. They were found in their yard. Six others in the small village of Agia Marina, through which the fire swept, are missing.
At Laurion, close to Athens, 300 children in a holiday camp have been evacuated as flames headed towards them. The islands of Naxos and Chios, both popular holiday destinations, are also being ravaged by fires.
France is fighting a fire on the island of Corsica which has been burning since Tuesday and has swallowed up 5-square kilometers of forest.
Holiday Hotspots Getting Hurt
In Italy, the road linking the popular holiday destinations Sorrento and Positano on the Amalfi coast south of Naples has been closed. Planes have been brought in to fight several fires raging in the hills. There are more fires threatening the Adriatic coast near Sestri Levante. Italy has lost 66 square kilometers of forest to fire so far this year. Sardinia also is affected.
The fires are erupting in the midst of a heat wave with 100-degree temperatures. The relentless heat wave has had the region all the way to the Middle East in its grip with little respite since May. It follows a winter in which rainfall was far less than average. Strong, hot winds are fanning the flames.
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