ATHENS, Greece (AP):
Southern Europe sweltered through some of the year's hottest weather yesterday as the second major heat wave in a month sparked yet more forest fires and had power officials scrambling to avert a repeat of Tuesday's widespread blackouts in the western Balkans.
The heat has claimed at least 33 lives in Romania.
Many thousands of hectares (acres) of forest land have been torched in Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece. The fires ignited in tinderbox conditions worsened by last winter's extended drought. Arson is suspected in many cases and several people have been arrested. Forests in Serbia have also been ravaged.
An 81-year-old woman died of heat-related causes in Edessa, northern Greece, yesterday, following four heat-related deaths Tuesday on Corfu. Authorities warned citizens, especially the elderly, to minimise movement, stay indoors and drink water.
Stagnant air
Argos, Lamia, Serres and Eleusis, near Athens, hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) yesterday approaching the 46C (114.8F) measured in late June. High pollution and humidity levels and stagnant air in the capital compounded the discomfort for residents and tourists, some of them newly arrived from flood-plagued Britain.
Greek forests were subject to 24-hour fire patrols. More than 1,000 additional firefighters were being hired quickly in an effort to cope with the seemingly relentless assault of wildfires.
Major fires were ablaze yesterday around the country, including in Corinth, the southern Peloponnese near Mt. Tayetos, Kozani, Kastoria and Ioannina in north Greece, and on the western island of Cephallonia, where the flames imperiled a nature reserve that is home to ponies native to the island. Tourists and a children's camp were evacuated as a precaution.
A huge blaze in Axaia province, in the northern Peloponnese, threatened built-up areas.
Some 2,000 Macedonian firefighters, half of them soldiers, battled dozens of blazes in pine and oak forests two days after the southern city of Bitola narrowly escaped an inferno. The Crisis Management Centre called this one of the worst fire seasons ever recorded.
