The forest fire lasted for more than a week, causing great loss of life, environment and property to countries in Southern Europe and North Africa such as Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Algeria.
Over the past week, Italy has been hit by two natural disasters, with wildfires in the south and hurricanes hitting the north, killing eight people. Firefighters said they had extinguished nearly 1,400 fires on July 23-25, including 650 in Sicily and 390 in Calbria.
Sicily officials say more than 693 hectares of forest on the island has been completely destroyed. Sicily estimated the wildfires caused $66 million in damage, while provincial agriculture officials said the fires and extreme heat caused agricultural losses of up to $219 million.
On July 26, Italy approved nearly 11 million USD to compensate tourists whose trips to Sicily were interrupted due to the impact of forest fires and heat.
The “Ring of Fire” caused by wildfires raged across Southern Europe and North Africa. Graphics: Guardian In Greece, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates more than 35,000 hectares of forest and land have been burned. Two firefighting pilots were killed while on duty on the island of Evia east of Athens. A 41-year-old farmer was also killed in the remote area. On the afternoon of July 27, an ammunition depot near the Greek Air Force base in the central coastal town of Nea Anchialos exploded due to the effects of a forest fire. The incident did not cause casualties, the F-16 fighters were moved to another base as a precaution. Temperatures have dropped in Greece, but strong winds could complicate efforts to put out fires that have spread to the outskirts of Athens, disrupting highways and railways. Tourism officials fear the bushfires will damage Greece’s image as a “tourist paradise”. More than 20,000 residents and tourists had to evacuate their residences and resorts south of the tourist island of Rhodes. Only on July 25, 3,000 tourists were repatriated by air. Upcoming tours have also been cancelled. Theo GuardianGreece is more dependent on the summer tourist season than any other Mediterranean country, and the damage is “incalculable”. “The number of requests for cancellations is like a shower,” said Panagiotis Tokouzis, vice president of the Greek Tourism Federation. Firefighting planes work in a forest carpet near the city of Volos, central Greece, on July 27. Image: AFP Authorities on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain, also had to evacuate hundreds of locals, blockade three roads and deploy firefighting helicopters as forest fires spread to the center of the island. The fire burned 200 hectares of forest in Gran Canaria. This year’s drought is affecting 90% of Portugal. Strong winds complicate efforts to put out a forest fire in the coastal town of Cascais, west of Lisbon. More than 600 firefighters were deployed. Water-bombing planes were also deployed, but had to be grounded at night. Forest fire in the village of Vati on the Greek island of Rhodes on July 25. Image: AFP Meanwhile, Algeria was the worst-hit country, with 34 deaths due to fires. Many homes in the North African country were destroyed, large forests turned into wasteland due to wildfires. Electricity and water were cut off on a large scale. This situation has been raging for days, mainly in the forest cover in the Kabylia region on the Mediterranean coast, where wind is also a big problem. Eyewitnesses described them as having to flee from “severe firewalls”. “Many people are traumatized,” said a member of the psychological support unit sent to the disaster area.
