Status: 07/26/2021 8:41 am
Wildfires are raging in the Mediterranean region. 1200 people had to be brought to safety on the Italian holiday island of Sardinia, and bushes and forests were on fire in southern France.
Larger bushfires are causing problems in several European countries. Parts of France, Spain and Italy are affected.
On the Italian holiday island of Sardinia, around 1200 people had to leave their homes, reported the broadcaster Rai News. Scared tourists have also fled the coastal town of Porto Alabe. “It is an unprecedented disaster,” said the island’s governor, Christian Solinas. Around 20,000 hectares have already gone up in flames. The civil protection agency said the danger was still “extreme”.
Help from other countries
The Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio asked Facebook for help from other European countries. Two planes from France and two from Greece have already arrived to help with the fire fighting. According to the fire brigade, around 7,500 rescue workers were deployed to help with the evacuations, among other things. According to Rai News, among other things, a care facility had to be evacuated.
1000 firefighters in France
In France there was a fire in the mountainous scrub and woodland between the cities of Narbonne and Carcassonne. The French authorities deployed more than 1,000 firefighters and rescuers there. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced this via Twitter. In addition, fire-fighting aircraft were in use in the Aude department in the south of France. According to media reports, nobody was injured.
The Mediterranean region is popular with holidaymakers. It burned over an area of around 8.5 square kilometers. The fire had ignited for a previously unknown cause and then spread.
On Saturday, the fire triggered power outages because there was a malfunction on a high-voltage line. In France alone, over 100,000 households have now been affected, as the network operator RTE announced.
In northeastern Spain, a forest fire got out of control around 100 kilometers west of Barcelona at the weekend. The flames have so far destroyed 1,100 hectares of forest and farmland, said the forestry authority of Catalonia on Twitter. There is a risk that wind at high temperatures of around 30 degrees and great drought will further heat the fire and it could spread in the direction of the province of Barcelona. Up to 5000 hectares are directly threatened.