Wildfires tear through Mediterranean tourist hot spots

The summer vacation season in resorts across the Mediterranean has turned into a nightmare of apocalyptic proportions as deadly wildfires have broken out across the region fueled by dry weather conditions and soaring temperatures.

Scientists rank the Mediterranean region as a climate crisis "hot spot," with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning of more heatwaves, crop failures, droughts, rising seas and influxes of invasive species.

In response to the threat to lives, livelihoods and ecosystems, the EU has stepped in to provide much-needed support for countries fighting wildfires after Greece and Tunisia both activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Ten countries — Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia — are contributing to the EU's response to the wildfires in Greece, with over 490 firefighters and seven planes sent to different areas of the country. Two planes from the EU's firefighting reserve (rescEU) hosted by Spain are being deployed to northwest Tunisia. Egypt has also supplied helicopters to Greece. 

Island evacuations in Greece

The southern European country has been particularly hard hit by wildfires this year, with residents and tourist forced to flee inferno-like conditions on the country's usually idyllic islands.

"I will state the obvious: in the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot spot, there is no magical defense mechanism. If there was we would have implemented it," said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Some 20,000 people were forced to evacuate the Greek island of Rhodes, a popular tourist destination known for its sandy beach resorts and ancient ruins, after fires reached coastal resorts on the southeast of the island.

Hundreds of firefighters there have been helped by forces from Turkey and Slovakia, as well as two planes from Turkey, one from Croatia and three helicopters from Egypt. About 10% of land on Rhodes has burned, according to state broadcaster ERT, with satellite images showing a huge "burn scar" across the island.

Wildfires also led to forced evacuations on the island of Corfu off of Greece's northwest coast, another tourist hotspot with rugged mountains and spectacular coastlines, over the weekend. Nearly 2,500 people were offered emergency shelter as airlines cancelled flights and helicopters scooped water out of the Ionian Sea to dump onto the flames.

Emergency services have also been battling fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens, and Aigio, southwest of Athens. Two Greek air force pilots were killed after their plane crashed into a hillside while fighting a forest fire near the village of Platanistos on Evia, the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean. A three-day period of mourning has been declared by the Greek armed forces.

Elsewhere in Greece, a wildfire west of the capital Athens has been burning since July 17, damaging more than 100 houses and businesses. Crete, the largest Greek island, has also now been put on high alert, with residents warned there is an "extreme risk" of fire as a third successive heatwave pushed temperatures back above 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the country.

Hundreds of wildfires in Turkey

Greece's Aegean neighbor has also been affected by the intense summer heatwave as temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in most parts of the country this week. Firefighters are battling a wildfire in the pine forests near the seaside resort of Kemer in the southern province of Antalya. The flames spread quickly through woodland as a result of strong winds and low humidity, the Antalya governor's office said.

Some 120 hectares of woodland burned in the Kemer area, with 10 firefighter planes, 22 helicopters and about 1,000 emergency workers deployed to fight the fires.

"While we encountered 265 wildfires between June 1 and July 24 last year, there have been 358 wildfires in the same period of this year," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Wildfires and storms ravage Italy

Italian firefighters reported nearly 1,400 fires between July 23 and 25, including 650 on the southern island of Sicily, and 390 in the southern mainland region of Calabria.

Sicily, home to the Mount Etna volcano and ancient monuments, has been ravaged by wildfires at the peak of its tourist season. Three elderly people died in the fires, with Sicilian President Renato Schifani describing the "scorching heat and unprecedented devastating fires" of July 25 as "one of the most difficult days in decades."

Canadian-built Canadair planes have been in operation to try to douse the flames on the hills around the Sicilian city of Palermo, which has been encircled by fires. Palermo airport was forced to close temporarily due to the fires.

But it's not just wildfires that have ravaged the country: Italy has also been hit by extreme weather in the north where violent storms have ripped through the north of the country, uprooting trees and lifting roofs off buildings. Last week, 100 people were injured after hail stones the size of tennis balls pelted the Veneto region.

Exploding landmines in Croatia

Around 130 firefighters are currently battling fires in the country on the Balkan Peninsula, where tourism accounts for around 20% of GDP. The area most affected is that just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) south of the medieval city of Dubrovnik, a top tourist destination facing the Adriatic Sea.

Hurricane southerly winds are preventing the deployment of aircraft and, according to local media reports, landmines left from the war in the 1990s are also exploding in the area. Up to 16 fire engines and 95 firefighters have been deployed to the area, as well as two specialized planes from the country's air force. Another bushfire broke out in Split-Dalmatia county on July 25, with 65 firefighters and three aircraft deployed to fight the blaze.

Mass evacuations in Spain

In the first half of 2023, almost 70,000 hectares of forest burned down in Spain — an area greater than the size of the capital Madrid and over half of all the land burnt by wildfires in the EU. Thousands were evacuated from volcano-dotted La Palma in the Canary Islands earlier this month as wildfires tore through 4,500 hectares of land.

Now a rapidly spreading wildfire has broken out at the center of the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, forcing authorities to evacuate several hundred villagers from their homes, close roads and deploy helicopters to fight the blaze. Antonio Morales, head of the Island Council of Gran Canaria, told reporters that about 100 firefighters and nine aircraft were working to put out the blaze that has so far burned through 200 hectares of forest.

Spain's Balearic Islands — including Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza — are the latest area to be put on red alert due to the risk of wildfires breaking out.

Natural park ablaze in Portugal

More than 600 firefighters, aided by local residents, scrambled to put out flames sweeping across parkland near the popular tourist destination of Cascais late on July 25. The fire started in a mountainous area of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park west of the capital Lisbon. The mayor of Cascais, Carols Carreiras, said gusts of up to 60 kmph were the biggest challenge ahead. EU data shows that Portugalhas so far escaped the recent heatwave in southern Europe, despite the fact that it is usually one of EU's worst-hit countries by wildfire.

Low ground-water levels in France

About six small-scale blazes have been recorded in the regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, Grand Est, Bouches-Du-Rhone and the tourist hotspot island of Corsica. In April, the French geological service BRGM said that very low groundwater levels had put France on course for a worse summer drought than last year, mainly in the southern part of the country. Several dozen firefighters used aircraft to battle a wildfire close to Nice international airport in the south of the country on July 25.

At least 34 people dead in Algeria

Algeria has also been affected by a major heatwave, with temperatures as high as 49 degrees Celsius. Wildfires have swept across the north African country, killing at least 34 people and forcing another 1,500 to evacuate their homes. To date, outbreaks of 97 blazes across 16 provinces have been recorded, mostly affecting forest, crops and farmland. The most extensive fires are in the mountainous Kabyle region east of Algiers.

High winds have calso aused these fires to spread to residential areas in the coastal provinces of Bejaia, Bouira and Jijuel. Authorities said about 8,000 firefighters, including aerial support teams, were battling the fires. Ten soldiers from the People's National Army (ANP) were killed fighting fires in Bejaia, the Algerian defense ministry said. The Interior Ministry reported that over 80% of the fires which began over the weekend have been extinguished.

Forest fires in Tunisia

Fires have raged through 450 hectares of the dense Melloula pine forest near the coastal town of Tabarka overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and close to the border with Algeria. Forest fire tankers and bulldozers were deployed to extinguish the fires. Algeria's north African neighbor has also seen temperatures of up to 49 degrees Celsius. Tourists traveling to Tunisia have been called on by the Algerian authorities to postpone their plans.

Edited by: Rob Mudge