Southern Europe bakes in year's hottest weather
Pastor Dale Morgan
Southern Europe bakes in year's hottest weather*
25.07.2007 Source: AP ©
Southern Europe continues suffering hot weather as the second major heat
wave in a month sparked yet more forest fires and had power officials
scrambling to avert a repeat of Tuesday's widespread blackouts in the
western Balkans.
The heat has claimed at least 33 lives in Romania.
Many thousands of hectares (acres) of forest land have been torched in
Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece. The fires ignited in tinderbox
conditions worsened by last winter's extended drought. Arson is
suspected in many cases and several people have been arrested. Forests
in Serbia have also been ravaged.
One man was killed in a fire in southern Greece where a blaze destroyed
homes outside the town of Aegio. Stranded residents were airlifted by
rescue helicopters.
"We're facing an extremely difficult situation: many fires on many
fronts in many parts of the country," Fire Service spokesman Yiannis
Stamoulis said.
Stamoulis said the worst fires were at Aegio, on the holiday island of
Cephallonia and in areas bordering Macedonia and Albania - where a fire
caused explosions of ordnance strewn across a remote area in Greece's
1946-49 Civil War.
Tourists and a children's camp were evacuated as a precaution in parts
of Greece, while the Cephallonia fire threatened a nature reserve that
is home to ponies native to the island.
The Health Ministry said an 81-year-old woman died of heat stroke in
northern Greece, as the temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius (113
Fahrenheit).
In Macedonia, 2,000 firefighters and army conscripts battled dozens of
blazes in pine and oak forests two days after the southern city of
Bitola narrowly escaped an inferno. Authorities described the July fires
as some of the worst recorded in the country.
Firefighters in Italy managed to subdue blazes in central and southern
areas - many of them blamed on arson - after about 3,000 tourists and
residents had to be evacuated Tuesday night.
Both Italy and Greece have lost firefighting pilots this week as
water-dropping helicopters and planes worked overtime.
Health officials in Hungary said high temperatures over the last week
may have contributed, at least in part, to hastening the deaths of
hundreds of seriously ill people in the country.
Late Tuesday the western Balkans suffered widespread power breakdowns,
including Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia. Northern Greece
suffered outages while other areas were hit by rolling power cuts to
protect the national grid from broader damage.
Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said regional blackouts had put
additional strain on Greece, and appealed to the public to limit the use
of air conditioners.
"We ask for citizens' understanding. Only with their cooperation we can
cope with extreme weather conditions that have not appeared in our
country for decades," he said.
Albania suffered power and water cuts for a second day Wednesday.
Officials blamed a transmission line defect for a nationwide blackout
Tuesday, but said severe rainfall shortages had added to problems by
depleting hydroelectric power stations.
Farmers in Romania estimate losses at over EUR1.5 billion (US$2
billion). Many communities have been left without drinkable water as
wells have dried up.
Meteorologists said cooler air was expected in the region by Thursday,
but no rain is forecast to relieve the parched conditions.