Mediterranean countries feel the force of deadly forest fires
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mediterranean countries feel the force of deadly forest fires*
AFP - Friday, August 31
ATHENS (AFP) - - While Greece edged closer to mastering forest fires
that have killed more than 63 people, other countries on the
Mediterranean and the Adriatic struggled with deadly woodland blazes
Thursday.
In Algeria, forest fires fed by winds off the Sahara and still burning
out of control in the north of the country had claimed eight lives in
the past 48 hours, said the country's civil protection services.
In Spain, 400 firefighters were forced to give ground as a fierce blaze
that started two days ago in the northeast continued to grow in
strength, fed by the hot weather and summer winds.
In Croatia a firefighter died in a fire that destroyed some 500 hectares
(1,235 acres) of forest on an island off the Adriatic coast.
Greek firemen were still battling a huge blaze in the west of the
Peloponnese peninsula, where residents had refused to leave their homes
despite an order to evacuate, a spokesman for the fire service said.
Five water-bombing planes and four helicopters were trying to douse
flames which were spreading through parched forests and olive groves.
Another blaze continued in the centre of Evia, the Aegean island to the
north-east of Athens, although no villages there were under threat.
After a week of fighting the blazes, most of the fires had been brought
under control, said officials.
But figures released by the local authorities revealed the extent of the
devastation. In the Peloponnese alone, more than 150,000 hectares
(370,000 acres) of land and forest were burned and 2,000 homes were
gutted or destroyed.
In Algeria, firefighters and soldiers were battling 90 separate fires
scattered across 19 regions in the north of the country.
Six people, including a woman and two children, were burnt to death at
Beni Douala, in the Tizi Ouzou district of Kabylie, 110 kilometres (70
miles) east of Algiers, said civil protection service spokesman Mohamed
Amokrane Medjkane.
Two young walkers perished on the Jijel coastline west of Algiers.
The fires have consumed at least 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of
woodland and farmland, the worst figures since 1983, said forestry
department head Mohammed Seghir Noual.
Pine trees, oaks, cedars and olive groves have all gone up in flames,
spreading a pall of ash across districts from Chlef in the west to
Skikda in the east.
The scirocco, a strong wind that blows dust off the Sahara across north
Africa and as far as southern Europe, made the work of firefighters more
difficult.
So did the lack of water-bombing planes used by other countries
including Greece and Spain.
Near Chrea, a few kilometres south of Blida, farm animals and chained-up
dogs abandoned by their owners also perished in the flames as homes and
farms were destroyed.
In Spain, a single fire ate up 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land, and
was gaining in strength overnight, Vincente Rambla, vice president of
the Valencia region, told reporters.
Officials had to evacuate 120 residents of the village of Les Useres,
close to where the fire broke out and where the blaze was burning most
fiercely.
Workers repairing an electrical line are thought to have started the
fire accidentally, said officials.
In Croatia, officials said Marinko Juric, 50, suffered a fatal heart
attack brought on by carbon dioxide poisoning as he and colleagues
battled a blaze on the southern island of Hvar.
The fire, in a pine and brush forest, was contained on Thursday, local
firefighters said, adding that no houses or vehicles were destroyed.
Since June, some 13,000 hectares (32,110 acres) of land have been
destroyed by around 900 separate fires, most of them along Croatia's
Adriatic coastline.
The most serious blaze threatened the historic coastal resort town of
Dubrovnik in early August.
Italy too has paid a heavy price for a series of summer forest fires.
The death toll there rose to 13 earlier this week after a badly burned
man died of his injuries from a fire in a guest house on the island of
Sicily.