Raging Wildfires Still Out of Control in Turkey, Greece, Italy & Spain

fire2 | eTurboNews | eTN
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Please pray for Greece was a message received. Holiday destinations on the islands of Kos, Rhodes in Greece, Sicily, and Southern Spain are fighting to save what can be saved with raging wildfires adding to COVID-19 spreads and earthquakes in some other regions. Climate change is real, this is now clear from Antalya to Spain.

COVID and earthquakes are adding to an ever increasing fire emergency
  1. Recently eTurboNews reported about wildfires raging in the Antalya region in Turkey.
  2. For the last few days, fires were raging not only in Turkey, but now also in Greece, Italy, and Spain. This is in addition to earthquakes in Turkey and Greece and an increase in COVID-19 infections.
  3. Not the Kurds, as assumed by some leaders in Turkey, but climate change is guilty. This is a serious warning triggered by an abused nature.


Hundreds were evacuated from beach resorts and homes in regions also trying to bring tourism back.

This is the sixth day with hundreds of people evacuated in Greece, Italy, and Spain with hundreds evacuated from beach resorts and homes.

The death toll from Turkey’s fires rose to eight after two more people died on Sunday in Manavgat. Fires in the town had already claimed the lives of five and one person in the resort Marmaris.

Turkey is suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, with nearly 95,000 hectares burned so far as a blistering heatwave covers the Mediterranean.

Most of the 112 or so fires that have erupted in Turkey alone over the past five days have been contained, with firefighters focusing their efforts in Manavgat, Marmaris, and Milas.

Turkish authorities investigating the cause of the fires named Kurdish militants or arson by children, but since fires are now not only spreading in Turkey but numerous Southern European countries, the issue is more likely related to climate change.

In Pescara, Italy, 800 people were evacuated from their homes and beach resorts after a fire broke out in a 53-acre nature reserve. The country’s national fire service said it was called to more than 800 emergencies. 250 fire emergencies were counted in 250, 130 in Puglia and Calabria, 90 in Lazip, and 70 in Campania.

In Sicily, 200 people were evacuated from the port city of Catania.

In Greece, a fire broke out over the weekend in Patras, along the western coast. Five villages were evacuated and eight people were hospitalized for respiratory problems and burns.

Firefighters battled through the night to contain a blaze on the holiday island of Rhodes. 

Rhodes, the largest of Greece’s Dodecanese islands, is known for its beach resorts, ancient ruins, and remnants of its occupation by the Knights of St. John during the Crusades. The city of Rhodes has an Old Town featuring the medieval Street of the Knights and the castle-like Palace of the Grand Masters. Captured by the Ottomans and then held by the Italians, the palace is now a history museum.

Planes and helicopters dropped water over the fires in Maritsa and Psinthos in the northern regions while reinforcement was sent on Monday morning.

A tourist tweeted: “The airplanes stopped about 3 hours ago to pull water from the ocean. So I guess the fire has gone. Today they flew all 8 minutes over our hotel. Thanks to all the firefighters and helpers.”

“We’re living in hell,” said the Mayor of Bodrum: “It’s not possible to put down the fires from the ground, and it’s too late to use firefighter planes or helicopters. We’re trying to protect residential areas. But we can do nothing to save the trees.

Raging Fires in Europe
Raging Fires in Europe & Turkey


@selingirit and @timursoykan tweeted: “This is a terror fire attack on forests, so many fires started simultaneously at the same time, Thanks to the great effort will keep them under control but may take some more time in some areas, (if they stop giving up the fire again and again) No doubt the damage will be recovered!”

In residential areas outside of Athens, houses are burning, the situation on the Greek holiday island of Kos & Rhodes is desperate; another tweeter said and added: “..all I the midst of heatwave of 45 centigrade, covid, and earthquakes.”

From Greece, a post says: “The entirety of Greece is burning.. north Athens, Rhodes, the fires are out of control. Please pray for Greece.”

A reader in Athens added: “In the northern part of Athens, the fire is due to an explosion in high tension cables. There are also fires in the south of Peloponnesus, in Rhodes, in Kos, and in other parts of Greece due to the extreme heat. How are things going in Spain?”

Wildfires in Spain burned a total of 81,194 hectares in 2019. Local authorities reported 10,717 fires, of which 3,544 were bigger than one hectare. This includes 14 major wildfires that affected more than 500 hectares each.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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