Firefighting plane crashes in Greece

Algerian authorities have contained the wildfires raging in the country's forests, state TV reported in the early hours of Wednesday.

"Civil protection announces putting down all fires," the state TV said in an alert.

Wildfires had swept across the country in the past days, killing at least 34 people, including 10 soldiers, and forcing some 1,500 people to evacuate their homes.

Algeria is among North African countries affected by a major heatwave with temperatures as high as 49 Degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit).

Hundreds of Portuguese firefighters were deployed on Tuesday to put out wildfires which spread across a natural park near the popular tourist destination of Cascais.

The fire started in the afternoon in a mountainous area in the Sintra-Cascais natural park west of Lisbon. Strong winds complicated efforts to put down the flames.

Over 600 firefighters were sent to battle the flames, aided by 198 vehicles and water-bombing planes. The latter halted their efforts as the night set in.

Local residents of a village among those affected, armed themselves with buckets of water and hosepipes, as they desperately attempted to protect their houses against the flames, fanned by the strong winds.

Authorities maintained no major injuries or damage to houses were reported.

Wildfires spread south of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik late on Tuesday, hitting an area just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the medieval top tourist attraction.

"A hurricane southern wind blowing in the Dubrovnik-Neretva canton has fueled a widespread open space fire in the area of the Dubrovnik Plat community," the Croatian Firefighters Community (HVZ) said.

Strong winds prevented the deployment of aircraft to the affected area. Two Canadair planes deployed at nearby locations since morning were forced to turn back, the HVZ said.

Some 130 firefighters were battling the blaze. The Firefighters Community said buildings were not threatened for the time being.

Local media reported the explosion of landmines from a 1990s war due to the fires. 

A man has been found dead on the Greek island, bringing the confirmed death toll from fires in Greece up to 3.

Police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglidou told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that the man was found "charred."

She said that police were investigating whether he was a shepherd who went missing on Sunday.

Fires raging in northern Algeria have left at least 34 people dead.

The Interior Ministry has, however, reported that 80% of the fires that began on Sunday have been extinguished.

In neighboring Tunisia, the official TAP news agency reported that a school principal died of asphyxiation from a fire in Nafza, in the northwest.

Fire crews also fought scattered wildfires in southeastern France, including one near Arles in Provence involving 300 firefighters and a water-dropping helicopter. 

Authorities have issued high-level fire warnings, and access to several forested areas along the French Riviera and in Corsica has been prohibited.

As a precaution, authorities in Turkey evacuated several homes and a hospital on Tuesday due to a wildfire that spread through a forested area close to the Mediterranean resort of Kemer in Antalya province.

Climate scientist Izidine Pinto told DW that the current heat wave created the "perfect weather conditions" to help the blazes spread, including "dry soils, heat and wind." 

He co-authored a study released Tuesday that found the heat waves parts of the world are experiencing would have been "extremely rare" without human-induced climate change.

Pinto, a climatologist at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, said global heating is not happening at the same rate across the world. Rather, we could witness small mean changes in global surface temperature and "large increases at the regional level."

"We saw that the heat wave was made 2.5 degrees [Celsius] more intense than it would have been without climate change," Pinto said.

"Municipal governments need to plan for this type of weather conditions that might be very good for fires to expand in several regions," he added.

Firefighters are struggling to beat back blazes still raging on Rhodes and Corfu amid a new wave of soaring temperatures.

A fire service spokesman said the worst blazes were on the two islands which are also popular tourist destinations.

Satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies show the extent of the fires on Corfu. 

Authorities evacuated nearly 2,500 people from Corfu on Monday alone.

The pilots of a Greek air force water-dropping plane died when they crashed while battling a forest fire on the island of Evia, east of Athens, the Defense Ministry said.

"A three-day mourning period is declared in the Armed Forces for the loss of life, in the line of duty, of the Air Force officers and pilots of the firefighting aircraft CL-215, which was operating in Evia," the ministry said.

The pilots were aged 34 and 27.

"They offered their lives to save lives," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said of the pilots. 

"They proved how hazardous their daily missions in extinguishing fires are ... In their memory, we continue the war
against the destructive forces of nature."

Television images showed the plane releasing its load of water before turning sideways, losing altitude and disappearing into a canyon before a fireball was seen. 

The plane had no ejection system.

Firefighters from 11 European countries are supporting Greek firefighting efforts in different parts of the country.

Some 500 firefighters, 100 vehicles, and seven planes are helping to battle the blazes.

Contributing nations include Italy, which is dealing with its own fires and extreme weather at home.

Other countries, including Turkey, Israel, and Egypt, have also sent help.

According to a spokesperson for the fire service, the most severe fires are currently on the tourist hotspots of Rhodes in the southeast and Corfu in the northwest.

"On the other fronts we have to deal with many cases of the fire flaring up again," Ioannis Artopios said.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cautioned that challenging times lay ahead as ministers met to discuss a response to the wildfires.

"We have another difficult summer ahead of us," Mitsotakis told the cabinet.

He said conditions in Greece could improve after Thursday but that longer term, the threat remains. 

"All of us are standing guard," he said. "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."  

In the past few weeks, Greece has experienced extremely high temperatures which are expected to increase through Wednesday, with some areas reaching over 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit).

The airport at Palermo on the island of Sicily has reopened after nearby wildfires forced its closure for a few hours. 

The airport operator has said only a limited number of outbound flights would be allowed "for the moment," although one plane from Turin in northern Italy had been able to land.

The closure took place as firefighters grappled with a major blaze in a nearby area that also disrupted local road and rail traffic. The brush blaze was said to have been made worse by significant wind.

One woman was reported to have died after an ambulance could not reach her home due to the fire.

Extreme weather has continued to batter Italy, with heavy storms causing damage and at least two deaths in the north.

Temperatures in Greece have climbed back above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) with one of the latest evacuation orders issued on the island of Evia.

Greek civil protection authorities announced the order for one northern community on the island.

Evacuations from fires that have raged for days have already taken place in other areas.

Nearly 2,500 people from the Greek island of Corfu were evacuated on Monday, with the situation there said to be under control.

Authorities on the island of Rhodes said more than 20,000 people, mostly tourists, were involved in successive evacuations there over the weekend.

The blaze on the island is now moving inland and destroying mountainous forest areas, including a part of a nature reserve.

Fires are also burning on the Peloponnese peninsula near the port city of Egion.

A newly published study concludes that human-made climate change is almost certainly to blame for intense heat waves affecting several world regions this month.

Researchers from the World Weather Attribution group carried out a rapid analysis of the current high temperatures, particularly in Southern Europe and the US Southwest.

They drew the conclusion that the deadly heat would have been virtually impossible without the continuing buildup of warming gases in the air.

Among other things, the current heat has driven devastating wildfires in Greece and other parts of Europe that have caused mass evacuations in some areas.

A firefighting plane has crashed during a mission on the Greek island of Evia, northeast of Athens, where it was being used to fight a wildfire.

The Greek Canadair plane had at least two people on board when it crashed near the village of Platanisto. 

It was among at least three other aircraft and around a hundred firefighters battling the flames on Evia.

Greece's Ministry of Defense said the two pilots, whose fate was initially unclear, were members of the Greek Air Force.

State broadcaster TV ERT aired a video of the low-flying aircraft as it crashed, disappearing into a canyon before a fireball could be seen moments later.

rc/nm (Reuters, AFP, AP)