Europe fires and storms

Wild fires die down after extreme weather kills 18

Article published on the 2009-07-25 Latest update 2009-07-25 12:46 TU

A helicopter drops water on a wildfire burning near Aliaga in Spain
(Photo: AFP)

Wild fires in southern Europe are abating Saturday, according to officials. Extreme weather in Europe has killed 18 people and injured dozens more.

Eight fires are still out of control in Italy, according to officials, but four others are on the point of being extinguished. 

In Greece a forest fire on the island of Crete has died down.

And in Spain the majority of fires are reported to have stabilised.

A Spanish firefighter, 31-year-old Pau Costa, died on Friday night in a Barcelona hospital. Four of his colleagues had already died when a sudden change of wind direction while fighting fire at Horta de Sant Joan, in the south of Catalonia, on Tuesday.

Costa had suffered burns to more than half his body. 

The driver of a fire engine died in Catalonia on Thursday when his vehicle fell into a ravine when he tried to avoid flames.

More than 17,000 hectares has been destroyed by wildfires since the beginning of the week in Spain and the Interior Ministry put the country on maximum wildfire alert.

At least eight people  have died in the fires that have struck Spain, France, Greece and the Italian island of Sardinia in the past few days. And five French firefighters have been injured in Corsica, while a row over military responsibility for fires near Marseille rumbles on.

A European Union monitoring agency warned that the risk of fire along the Mediterranean coastline remains high due to rising temperatures predicted for the coming days.

In central Europe ten people have been killed and dozens injured by storms. Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria suffered devastation as hot air masses from north Africa clashed with cooler air systems moving in from western Europe.

Click here to view a slideshow of the Spanish fires (with commentary in French).