(Reuters) -Europe is battling the effects of scorching weather, with June having been the hottest month on record in the 174-year history of temperature monitoring.
Last year, heat waves resulted in over 61,600 heat-related fatalities across 35 European countries and triggered devastating wildfires. This year, temperatures could exceed Europe’s current record of 48.8 Celsius (119.84 Fahrenheit), recorded in Sicily in August 2021.
Below is a list of the most recent blazes and heat-related warnings issued in Europe.
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CROATIA
A bushfire near the coastal town of Sibenik quickly spread on July 13, fuelled by strong southerly winds. On July 25, firefighters were also battling wildfires spreading in the area south of the medieval Mediterranean town of Dubrovnik.
FRANCE
About six small-scale blazes have been recorded in the regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, Grand Est, Bouches-Du-Rhone and Corsica island. On July 25, firefighters were fighting a blaze that erupted in the French municipalities of Cagnes-sur-Mer and Villeneuve-Loubet, close to Nice international airport.
GREECE
Fires burning since mid-July on the island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 as an inferno reached coastal resorts on the island’s southeast. A wildfire also forced evacuations from the island of Corfu in the night of July 25-26.
Emergency services were dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens, and Aigio, southwest of Athens, and fires also erupted on mainland, killing two people.
On July 28, wildfires abated but officials said the threat of further fires was high in almost every region of the country.
ITALY
Fires were burning in various parts of Calabria, the southernmost part of the Italian mainland. In Sicily, wildfires killed three elderly people, while fires around Palermo were still burning on the hills.
PORTUGAL
A wildfire erupted on July 25 in the mountainous area of Cascais, west of Lisbon. Blazes were under control on July 26, but authorities said firefighters would remain on the ground to avoid reignition.
RUSSIA
Wildfires spread on July 12 in central Russia’s Urals region, in the small village of Shaidurikha near Yekaterinburg, and caused significant damage, including the death of one woman and two people injured.
SPAIN
A wildfire started on July 15 on the island of La Palma, leading to the evacuation of more than 4,000 people and burning 2,900 hectares of the island. On July 19, the blaze was contained, reported Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Another wildfire in the centre of Gran Canaria island was declared stable, after burning 400 hectares of woodland.
SWITZERLAND
The spread of a fire on the forested flank of a mountain in Bitsch, in the Valais canton near the Italian border, pushed the police to issue evacuation orders on July 17 for several mountain villages. The fires were still not completely under control on July 22, a local official said according to Swiss media RTS.
TURKEY
Wildfires started on July 16 in Turkey’s southeastern Hatay and Mersin provinces and Canakkale province in the northwest, the Turkish General Directorate of Forestry said on its Twitter account. On July 25, a wildfire erupted near the resort of Kemer in the southern province of Antalya, with some 120 hectares of woodland burned in the Kemer area.
(Reporting and compiling by Dina Kartit and Gaëlle Sheehan; Editing by Milla Nissi and Mark Potter)
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