Algeria, where at least 34 people have been killed, has the highest death toll, according to CNN and theBBC, Ten of the victims were soldiers, perReutersand the BBC.
Algeria’s Civil Protection Services said in a statement on Wednesday that it has managed to contain all wildfires and that the situation appears to be under control, CNN reported.
Italy is battling 10 fires in the country’s south, including blazes in Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo and Puglia, where 2,000 people were evacuated from three hotels on Tuesday evening, CNN reported.
Sicilian President Renato Schifani said Tuesday was “one of the most difficult days in decades” due to “scorching heat and unprecedented devastating fires” in Sicily, Al Jazeera reported, citing a translated Facebook message.
Christoph Reichwein/picture alliance via Getty Images
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The Italian government was scheduled to meet in Rome on Wednesday evening to declare a state of emergency in natural disaster-affected areas and to implement a special furlough plan for workers most vulnerable to the heatwave, Al Jazeera reported.
A burnt vehicle is pictured in the aftermath of a forest fire near the town of Melloula in northwestern Tunisia close to the border with Algeria on July 26, 2023.FETHI BELAID/AFP via Getty Images
FETHI BELAID/AFP via Getty Images
“We left the restaurant as the flames approached,” Selmy said, adding that the flames could not be extinguished “after the wooden building was devastated” amid water disturbances in Tabarka last week.
Meanwhile, the Civil Protection Ministry in Greece issued an “extreme danger” fire warning in six of the country’s 13 regions on Wednesday, according to the BBC.
CNN, Al Jazeera and the BBC reported that two pilots were killed in Evia, which is north of Athens, after their plane crashed as it battled fires. Greece’s armed forces have announced three days of national mourning, per CNN.
A 41-year-old stockbreeder who had been missing since Sunday was also discovered burned in a shack in a remote area, Al Jazeera reported.
At a government cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the fires were a “tough test” for the country, according to CNN. He predicted that “things will probably get worse, not better, with warmer temperatures, more drought, stronger winds.”
The World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists who quantify how climate change influences the intensityand likelihood of an extreme weather event,said in a report released Tuesdaythat the heat wave in Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.
source: people.com
