Fires on the Rise

Environment & Technology
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Wildfire near Athens forces evacuation of seaside resorts

Wildfires broke out near Athens on Monday as a heatwave grips Greece, firefighters said, with 1,200 children evacuated outside a seaside resort.

The first blaze started in Kouvaras, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of Athens.

“It’s a difficult fire, the winds are really strong” with gusts reaching up to 60 kilometres (37 miles) per hour,” said Yannis Artopios, a firefighters’ spokesman.

Greece, along with Italy and Spain, has been gripped by a heatwave since last week, with temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) in the centre of the country.

The domestic press agency ANA said a forest fire had also flared in strong winds near the Isthmus of Corinth close to the popular beach town of Loutraki.

“We have saved 1,200 children who were in the holiday camps” threatened by the fires near Loutraki, said the town’s mayor, Giorgos Gkionis.

Seven water-bombing aircraft, four helicopters and 150 firemen backed by colleagues from Romania were fighting the flames on two fronts, local media reported.

The blaze burnt quickly through brush and spread south toward the Attica region and the resorts of Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Saronida.

Several homes were burned in the area, according to footage by public broadcaster ERT, and an equestrian centre was evacuated.

Thick smoke blocked traffic on the roads around Kalyvia.

The authorities told residents to leave the area and monks were evacuated from a local monastery.

Artopios said no one had so far been reported trapped by the flames.

In Athens, where the mercury hit 39C on Saturday, the Acropolis, one of Greece’s top tourist attractions, closed during the hottest hours for three consecutive days to Sunday.

Temperatures are forecast to drop in Greece some 2C-4C by Wednesday, with a new heatwave to follow from Thursday and local highs of 43C, according to the EMY national weather service.

“We are in the middle of the period of fighting fires and the conditions expected will be particularly difficult and favour forest fires,” said Artopios.

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THOUSANDS FORCED TO FLEE GREEK ISLAND OF RHODES AS WILDFIRE SPREADS

Greece: Rhodes wildfire forces thousands to flee

Thousands of people were evacuated on Saturday from homes and hotels on the Greek Island of Rhodes, authorities said.

A large wildfire that has been raging for five days forced several people to flee several of the island's coastal villages and beaches.

Three coast guard vessels, an army lifeboat and 30 private sailboats helped to evacuate at least 2,000 people, including tourists, fire department spokesperson Yannis Artopios said.

Some 30,000 people were moved to safety. Artopios said that all the visitors had been safely evacuated from the hotels and rented homes.

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Prevention teams in Spain work to stop wildfires before they start | Focus on Europe

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Prevention teams in Spain work to stop wildfires before they start | Focus on...

Wildfires are on the rise in Spain due to heat and drought. Prevention teams are trying to head off fires in risky locations by clearing brush and digging ditches.

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:fire: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION IN SICILY

Sicily fires map: Where wildfires have spread in Italy and latest travel advice after Palermo airport closed

16 cities in Italy are on red alert, including Palermo and Catania in Sicily, with Palermo airport forced to close on Tuesday as temperatures hit 47ºC

Wildfires have spread across southern Europe, and Sicily has been among those areas badly hit.

Greece is currently facing massive fires as well, and blazes also hit parts of Spain recently.

Italy has 16 cities on red alert, including Palermo and Catania in Sicily. Palermo airport was forced to close on Tuesday morning as temperatures reached 47ºC, and is still catering only for a reduced number of flights.

What has happened in Sicily?

Italy’s great southern island has been devastated by wildfires that have killed three elderly people, its regional president said.

The charred bodies of a couple in their 70s were found in their burnt-out home on the outskirts of Palermo, the regional capital, according to Italian media reports.

Another woman in her late 80s died in the Palermo province after an ambulance was unable to reach her home due to fires in the area.

In an overnight message on Facebook, Sicily’s President, Renato Schifani, said “scorching heat and unprecedented devastating fires” had turned Tuesday into “one of the most difficult days in decades”.

Italian firefighters said they battled nearly 1,400 fires between Sunday and Tuesday, including 650 in Sicily and 390 in the southern mainland region of Calabria, where a bedridden 98-year-old man was killed as fire consumed his home.

Fires were still burning on the hills around Palermo on Wednesday, with Canadair planes back in operation to try to douse the flames.

Large areas of the Mediterranean have been sweltering under an intense summer heatwave on Tuesday, fuelling blazes across the region.

Sicily is a major tourist destination but a fire inside a terminal building last week caused the near-total closure of the airport in Catania in the east of the island – Sicily’s biggest airport. Palermo airport was also closed for a few hours on Tuesday because of a wildfire nearby.

“I hope that tourist flows in the areas affected by the fires will not suffer losses,” Italy’s civil protection minister Nello Musumeci, a Sicilian, told La Stampa newspaper. “The risk… is there and it is understandable.”

The Italian government was set to meet in Rome on Wednesday to declare a state of emergency in regions affected by natural disasters, and introduce a furlough scheme for workers most exposed to the heatwave.

While Italy’s south is battling with wildfires, the north is reeling from severe storms that killed two people on Tuesday, including a 16-year-old girl scout crushed by a falling tree.

In a sign that temperatures were finally easing, only two cities – Catania in Sicily and Bari in southern Puglia – were on a government heatwave red-alert list for Wednesday, down from 17 the previous day.

A British tourist in Sicily has told how she had a panic attack and felt like she was “suffocating” as she saw wildfires approaching the seaside cottage she had rented with her two children.

Olivia Johnston, 34, from Manchester, told i she was staying in a cottage in the small resort of Mondello, Palermo for a week with her children, aged 10 and 12.

But on Monday night the family was forced to evacuate as wildfires started encircling Palermo, the capital of the southern Italian island, getting dangerously close to their accommodation.

“Last night wildfires almost reached the residential area where we were staying,” Ms Johnston said. “We were forced to evacuate the place, I could see black skies full of smoke and flames in the distance.”

She said she felt “dizzy”, adding: “my heart was beating so fast it was driving me crazy.”

Ms Johnston said the family spent the night at a neighbour’s house but it was still unclear whether they would be able to return to the cottage on Tuesday night.

Where are the fires?

The most notable wildfire at the moment is in Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily.

Full article

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Are The Fires on Rhodes Being Started Deliberately?

Nikola 3 – Twitter July 26, 2023
Paul Joseph Watson has reported that local fire fighters claim that fires on the Greek island of Rhodes were caused by arson and this video seems to confirm it.

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Media Lies About Rhodes: Are Trees Just Catching Fire These Days? Are natural climate changes or arson to blame? *This video is targeted arson

Watch on twitter

https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=271559

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Wildfires rage in French tourist hotspots of Provence and Corsica

Thousands of firefighters are battling to save homes across the south of France as winds whip up flames near resorts.

Around 1,000 camping plots have been evacuated as wildfires raged across parts of southern France and Corsica.

Up to 900 hectares of forest has been engulfed in flames, threatening homes on the island of Corsica, off the southern French coast.

A further 860 hectares has been ravaged by a blaze in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region.

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NOT CLIMATE CHANGE - IT'S ARSON!

Police drone caught a suspected arsonist in Calabria, southern Italy, during the widespread wildfires in Sicily and Sardinia.

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Portugal wildfires: Firefighters tackle blaze sweeping towards the Algarve

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Hawaii wildfires burn homes and force evacuations, while strong winds complicate the fight

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/it-s-very-windy-and-dry-in-hawaii-strong-gusts-18286385.php

Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds burned multiple structures, forced evacuations and caused power outages in several communities late Tuesday as firefighters struggled to reach some areas that were cut off by downed trees and power lines.

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Multiple wildfires and strong winds force evacuations on Maui

Video footage shows wildfires burning on the Hawaiian island of Maui as residents are forced to evacuate. Strong winds stemming from a hurricane south of Hawaii is partly to blame for the fast rate at which the fires are spreading.

Multiple wildfires and strong winds force evacuations on Maui

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LAHAINA IN MAUI HAWAII DESTROYED

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MAUI FAMILY SURVIVED THE HAWAII WILDFIRES BY HIDING IN THE OCEAN FOR HOURS

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Brit living in France describes 'terrifying' wildfires and says it's 'unbelievable no-one was killed' as more than 3,000 tourists evacuated from holiday hotspot

  • Blazing wildfires have ripped through 500 hectares of land in holiday region in southern France
  • Thousands of terrified tourists have been forced to flee from the holiday region as blaze ripped through towns
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Malachi:
4:1 For, behold, the Day cometh, that shall burn like an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the "I AM" Lord of hosts, that it shall leave of them neither root nor branch (nothing).
4:2 But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

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"Running water never grows stale. So you just have to 'keep on flowing'." - Quote

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Is the quoted line from Josh Green a warning, a threat or a little bit of both?

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green: “There are Going to be Fires Month in and Month Out All Across the Country”

Peggy Hall from The Healthy American has pulled out some comments from Hawaii Governor Josh Green during a press conference who stated that deadly fires are now going to be common occurrences, happening “month in and month out” all across the country.

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BRITISH COLUMBIA FIRES

B.C. wildfires: State of emergency declared in Kelowna, evacuations underway

“Due to unpredictable fire behaviour, it is critical that all residents evacuate for their safety and the safety of first responders in the area,” said Emergency Operations.