holy crap 
Heatwave turns southeastern Europe into tinderbox as fires
rage
Posted: 25 July 2007 1915 hrs
Photos 1 of 1
A couple of tourists refresh themselves in a fountain at
Thessaloniki, northern Greece, during a heatwave
Related News
Heatwave claims hundreds of lives in Europe
Weather extremes hit southeast Europe, Britain
ROME: Southeastern Europe was a tinderbox Wednesday in the grip of
an unrelenting heatwave that has claimed hundreds of lives as
wildfires swept southern Italy and bit into a national park in
Slovakia.
Southern Italy is sweltering under a heatwave that has brought
temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104
Fahrenheit).
"We've had 50 calls so far already for airborne intervention
against fires," public safety official Luca Spoletini told AFP
mid-morning.
"The situation is similar to that of the past few days, with most
of the fires burning in the centre and south of the country. The
worst situations are in Sicily and Calabria," he said.
In Apulia on Tuesday, two people were burned alive in their car
near the Adriatic coastal town of Peschici, while on Monday a pilot
died when his Canadair crashed while he was fighting a fire in
Abruzzo.
"The alert remains high across the country," fire services
spokesman Luca Cari told AFP on Wednesday. "We have doubled the
personnel rotations to ensure a stronger presence ... and we have
transferred personnel from the north of the country to the south to
help us."
In Slovakia a lightning strike sparked a huge forest fire on Sunday
that was still raging across about 10 hectares (25 acres) of the
Slovensky Raj (Slovakian Paradise) national park in the east of the
country.
Meanwhile Greek authorities were holding emergency meetings on one
of the hottest days of the year as the risk of fire remained high
and the death toll from the ongoing heatwave rose to four.
Three elderly Greeks were reported to have died from heat-related
caused on the Ionian island of Corfu overnight, in addition to a
75-year-old man who died there Monday.
With temperatures set to hit 45 degrees Celsius in parts of the
country, Greeks were warned to stay indoors and help conserve
electricity to prevent power outages.
"Until (Wednesday evening) when the heatwave passes, we ask for
restraint," Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said, adding:
"We don't need to have the air-conditioning on all day long."
The heatwave caused a spike in smog pollution in Athens, with ozone
levels above emergency limits in several parts, prompting the
government to urge motorists to avoid the city centre.
The fire department said 99 blazes had broken out around Greece
since Tuesday, added to hundreds of fires that have burned
thousands of hectares of forest and agricultural land since
temperatures began rising in June.
Five fires were raging on Wednesday in the northern regions of
Ioannina, Kastoria and Kozani, in the southern Peloponnese
peninsula and on the Saronic island of Hydra.
The situation was expected to improve on Thursday, with
temperatures dropping a couple of degrees.
Hungary, where up to 500 people may have died last week from
heat-related causes, enjoyed a significant drop in temperatures
overnight with the welcome arrival of a cool front.
Highs for Wednesday were not expected to exceed 29 degrees Celsius,
down from nearly 40 Celsius on Tuesday.
A third degree heat alert - the highest ever applied in the country
before last week - ended on Tuesday.
On the western edge of Europe, even without a heatwave Portuguese
firefighters are battling blazes near Abrantes, about 100
kilometres (60 miles) north of Lisbon, and in the Caldeirao
mountains in the south. - AFP/yy
