Temperatures exceeding 40 ° C and high winds have fueled hundreds of forest fires around the Mediterranean basin of southern Europe for the past week, particularly in Greece and Turkey. The evacuations of tourists and residents continued on Monday, August 2, even as the European Union sent reinforcements to Turkey, the country most affected, in the form of three bomber planes.
“The worst heat wave since 1987” in Greece
Greece is currently living “The worst heat wave since 1987”, According to its Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and it should last a few more days with temperatures expected around 45 ° C at the start of the week, and minimums which should not drop below 26 ° C.
Dry by the heat, the Greek forests experience fires every summer, but those of 2021 are particularly devastating. The risk of fire has also been declared at a level ” very high “ over most of the country, in particular the Athens region, the Peloponnese, Crete and the Aegean Islands. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), 13,511 hectares have gone up in smoke since the start of the year in Greece.
The two most important fires are reported in the northwest of the Peloponnese and on the tourist island of Rhodes. The first resulted in the evacuation of coastal villages and the closure of several axes, including the highway that connects Corinth to Patras, the third largest city in the country, and the Rio-Antirio bridge connecting the peninsula to mainland Greece.
In Rhodes, the situation is on the way to being brought under control, according to the authorities, who say that the fire declared on Sunday was in decline, under the effect of a significant reinforcement of the personnel and the means of fighting against the fire. “The first objective, the protection of human life, has been achieved” and “The damage to the electricity network has been repaired”, South Aegean Governor George Chatzimarkos said. The firefighters still evacuated, as a precaution, the Valley of the Butterflies, a wooded area in the center of this Dodecanese island, which traditionally attracts hikers and tourists.
The heat in the country is such that the Acropolis of Athens, usually crisscrossed by tourists, has closed its doors for the afternoon. Tourists will find closed doors in the afternoon, from Tuesday until Friday, at all open-air archaeological sites in Greece, the culture ministry said.
Cities evacuated and nearly 100,000 hectares burned in Turkey
The fires in Turkey are, compared to those in Greece, more worrying because more numerous, more widespread and less easily controlled. For six days, with temperatures exceeding 40 ° C, the fires have evacuated more than a thousand people, tourists and residents alike, and caused the death of at least eight people. Almost 95,000 hectares have burned so far in 2021 in the country. Between 2008 and 2020, the annual average was just over 13,000 hectares per year.
According to the Minister of Agriculture, Bekir Pakdemirli, 119 fires reported in the 32 provinces of the country since Wednesday were extinguished on Sunday. The Directorate of Forests, a Turkish public body cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP), lists seven more active, especially in the coastal and tourist provinces of Antalya and Mugla. Ahmet Aras, mayor of Bodrum town, where tourists and locals fled the flames by boat because the roads were not passable, described scenes from “Hell”.
The European Union sent three water bomber planes – two Canadair from Spain and one from Croatia – to assist Turkey, as part of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. Prior to the announcement of European aid, Turkey had borrowed bomber planes from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Iran.