Wildfires in south Europe
6 July 2000
Hundreds of wildfires burned across southern Europe on Tuesday as the region remained in the grip of a heat wave that has driven temperatures between 45 – 50°C. In the Balkans, the temperatures accompanied the worst drought to strike the region in 50 years, which has already caused record crop losses since it began in late May. Romanian officials expect no let up in the heat for at least a few weeks, and they urged local governments and firefighters to stay on alert and prepare water reserves. About 100 fires still burned Tuesday in Romania, despite successful efforts by firefighters to put out 98 other fires. Nobody was injured in the Romanian fires. Wildfires have also raged in many areas of Croatia over the last three weeks, with some fires reaching villages and sweeping through farmers’ fields. Also here, no injuries have been reported yet. Firefighters in Croatia’s central Adriatic town of Sibenik, where 250 acres of forest have already burned, said Tuesday they could not get to fires because the area has not yet been cleared of mines from a war fought there in 1991. In neighboring Serbia, where temperatures climbed above 40°C in several cities, hospitals reported a sharp increase in patients complaining of problems related to the heat, and authorities urged people to stay indoors.
(information source: abcnews)
