The Flames Ravage the South: The Number of Fires Is Increasing in the Mediterranean Basin, Deaths Are to Be Deplored

Crushed by scorching temperatures, several countries in the Mediterranean basin face violent fires during the summer, a phenomenon which is accentuated from year to year under the effect of climate change. 

Sometimes deadly fires have broken out, as in Algeria, where the fire has killed at least 34 people since Sunday. Here is an inventory of the blazes currently consuming the Mediterranean rim.

Algeria: at least 34 dead in three days

In Algeria, firefighters continued their efforts on Tuesday evening to overcome 11 fires that ravaged the northeast, after having managed to control the majority of the fires which killed at least 34 people in three days.

Although firefighters were able to put out the majority of the fires, there are still 11 outbreaks in seven wilayas (prefectures) in the north and east. Local media images show fields and bushes on fire, charred cars and shops reduced to ashes. 

In Toudja, in the northeast, where 16 people died, the fire was almost entirely contained, despite a few persistent outbreaks. Fire-fighting planes dropped water for two days on this wooded area, located on the shores of the Mediterranean in the wilaya of Béjaïa.

Greece: three fire-related deaths

Two pilots of a Canadair died in the crash of their plane and the body of a man was found charred on Tuesday in Greece, struggling with violent fires which ravage this country tested by scorching temperatures for ten days.

The water bomber plane crashed into a ravine while battling a forest fire in southern Evia island. Hundreds of firefighters and at least four planes were fighting the flames on this island near Athens on Tuesday. It was also on this island that the charred body of a third victim was found.

As images of charred forests and vegetation shocked all of Greece, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned that fighting the fires would remain “difficult”.

Italy: three dead in Sicily

Southern Italy is hit by a heat wave with a temperature of 47.6°C recorded Monday in Catania, Sicily. The bodies of two septuagenarians were found charred in a house engulfed in flames and an 88-year-old woman died near Palermo, media reported on Tuesday evening.

Sicilian firefighters also fought overnight from Monday to Tuesday against several fires, one of which happened near Palermo airport, which was closed for several hours in the morning. The president of the Sicilian region, Renato Schifani, has indicated that he wants to ask the government, which meets on Wednesday in the council of ministers, to declare a state of emergency on the Mediterranean island.

France: virulent fire in Haute-Corse

Firefighters fought in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday against a virulent fire fanned by gusts of wind threatening three villages in Haute-Corse, a French department located on the island of Corsica (south). 

The fires were close to three villages, Corbara, Pigna and Santa-Reparata-Di-Balagna and more particularly to two hamlets with “many sensitive points, dwellings, religious points”, according to the firefighters. Some 130 hectares of vegetation have been ravaged by the flames according to a latest assessment.