At least 3 deaths reported as forest fires are wrapped in southern Europe

Forest fires intensified in southern Europe on Wednesday, with a 24 -hour battle to protect the perimeter of the third largest city in Greece and at least three deaths reported in Spain, Turkey and Albania.

Outside the Greek port city of Patras, the firefighters had trouble protecting houses and agricultural facilities while the flames tear the pine forests and the olive-bosquets. The large columns of flames have risen behind buildings on the outskirts of the city, while dozens of vehicles were burned while the fire swept a lot of restraint nearby.

“Today is another very difficult day, the level of risk of fire remaining very high in many regions of the country,” said spokesperson for Vassilis Vathrakoyianis fire services. At least 15 firefighters were hospitalized or received medical care to burn, inhalation of smoke or exhaustion, he said.

While the breathtaking planes and the helicopters moved above, the residents joined the effort, beating the flames behind with cut branches or sprayed with buckets of water.

Thin stretched resources

Fire control resources have been stretched in many affected countries while fighting several epidemics after weeks of heat waves and temperature peaks in the Mediterranean region. On the Greek island of Chios, exhausted firefighters slept on the side of the road after a quarter -night.

The planes turned between the flames on the West Greek continent, the Patras region and the island of Zakynthos. Athens has also sent help to neighboring Albania, joining an international effort to combat dozens of forest fires. An 80 -year -old man died in a fire south of the capital, Tirana, officials announced on Wednesday.

Residents of four villages were evacuated in central Albania near a former army ammunition deposit. In the south of the Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried artillery in the Second World War. The authorities said dozens of houses were emptied in a central region of the country.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed condolences after the death of a fire -fighting volunteer in the Castile and León region hard hit north of the capital, Madrid, where thousands of people were moved by evacuations.

The evacuation centers have been filled with capacity in certain parts of the center of Spain, some spending the night outside on folding beds. The most serious fires pushed north into more rural areas, where some residents have watered the walls of their homes to protect them from fires.

The services along a high-speed rail link between Madrid and the northwestern region of Galicia was suspended after fires approached certain sections of the tracks, said the rean-state railway company.

In Türkiye, a forest worker was killed on Wednesday while responding to a forest fire in a southern region, officials said. The forest ministry said the worker died in an accident involving a fire truck that made four other injured.

Turkey has been fighting serious forest fires since the end of June. A total of 18 people were killed, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers who died in July.

In France, which recovers recent massive fires in the southern regions, temperatures up to 42 ° C were expected for the third consecutive day. The authorities have issued weather alerts giving local authorities the discretion to cancel public and cord events on areas with high fire risks.

In the southwest of France, a fire in Trancoso, Portugal, which has been burning since Saturday, has won overnight after lightning has rekindled an area which was safe, said the civil protection service.

The authorities of European countries have cited several causes for fires, including reckless agricultural practices, poorly maintained electric cables and summer lightning storms.

Officials of the application of the laws of northern Macedonia also cited indications of criminal fire, motivated by thug developers. The firefighters struggled to contain a fire in a nature reserve outside the capital, Skopje on Wednesday.

The European Union has precipitated aid in countries struck by fires, including non -member states, with ground teams and breathtaking planes. A large part of the recent effort focused on Montenegro, where the main forest fires continued to burn in robust areas near the capital, Podgorica.

“Natural disasters do not know any border,” said Ljuban Tmusic, head of the Civil Protection Agency in Montenegro. “In Montenegro, the resources we have … are clearly not enough.”