Brussels, Belgium
Reuters
The Mediterranean has become a wildfire hotspot, with Turkey hit by its most intense blazes on record and a heatwave producing a high risk of further fires and smoke pollution around the region, a European Union atmosphere monitor said on Wednesday.
Wildfires are raging in countries including Greece and Turkey, where thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and on Tuesday a fire threatened to reach a coal-fired power plant.
A firefighter reacts as a wildfire burns at Varympompi suburb north of Athens, Greece, on 3rd August. PICTURE: Reuters/Giorgos Moutafis/File photo.
The fires have struck as Southern Europe experiences an intense heatwave, with some places in Greece on Tuesday recording temperatures of over 46 Celsius.
Human-induced climate change is making heatwaves more likely and more severe, scientists say. The EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said the hot and dry conditions had hiked the danger of further fires, although high temperatures alone do not trigger wildfires because they need a source of ignition.
SITE OF ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES THREATENED IN GREECE
Greek authorities ordered villages near the site of the ancient Olympic Games in the western Peloponnese to be evacuated on Wednesday as wildfires raged across the country, destroying swathes of forest and buildings, and sending hundreds fleeing.
Temperatures of more than 40 Celsius and strong winds have fanned more than 150 wildfires in different areas of the country in recent days.
“We are still fighting a titanic battle on many fronts,” Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said during a briefing, “The next days will be more difficult.”
A dozen villages were cleared near the archaeological site in the western Peloponnese region where the ancient Olympic Games were held, and around 160 firefighters, with water bombing aircraft battled to save the ancient treasures.
“We’re doing our best to save this sacred place,” local mayor Panagiotis Antonakopoulos, told television station Open TV. “After human lives our priority is to save our history.”
The site, where the Olympic flame begins its journey to the city hosting the modern Olympics, is one of Greece’s most popular tourist attractions. It was threatened by an earlier fire in 2007.
– LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS, GIORGIOS MOUTAFIS, ANGELIKI KOUTANTOU and KAROLINA TAGARIS, Reuters
CAMS monitors wildfires through satellites and ground-based observation statements, and said the emissions and intensity of wildfires are rapidly increasing in Turkey and Southern Italy.
In Turkey, a key metric of fire intensity – the “fire radiative power”, which measures energy produced from burning trees and other matter – reached the highest daily values since data records began in 2003.
Plumes of smoke from fires in southern Turkey were clearly visible in satellite images of the region, and the severe scale of the fires had caused high levels of particulate matter pollution over the Eastern Mediterranean area, CAMS said.
Persistent exposure to particulate matter pollution is associated with cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer.
“It is especially important to closely watch these high intensity fires as the smoke they emit can have impacts on air quality locally and downwind,” said Copernicus senior scientist Mark Parrington.
Italy, Albania, Morocco, Greece, North Macedonia and Lebanon have all faced wildfires since late July.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it had helped mobilise firefighting aircraft, helicopters and firefighters to assist Italy, Greece, Albania and North Macedonia.
