Italy sets record temperature in Europe of 48.8 degrees Celsius and fights forest fires | Globalism

The temperature was verified at 48.8°C in the area Sicily, broke the previous European record, when in 1999 thermometers recorded 48.5 ° C, also in Italy.

In the region of Calabria and Sicily, it was Firefighters had to carry out 300 interventions in the past 12 hours to put out the fire sites. Seven Canadian planes have been mobilized since dawn to spray water on the flames, according to firefighters.

One A 77-year-old man died On Wednesday, he succumbed to burns sustained in a fire while trying to protect his flock in the interior of Reggio, Calabria.

Meanwhile, Madonia, a mountainous region near Palermo, the capital of Sicily, was shrouded in wind-fueled flames and intense heat for several days. NS Fire destroys crops, homes and factories.

The governor of Sicily, Nello Musumesi, called for a state of emergency to be declared in Madonia. Agriculture Minister Stefano Patuanelli visited the site on Wednesday and promised to “help those who have lost everything”.

“We must also strengthen the role of agriculture as the guardian of the territory. We must make sure that the farmer who takes care of the unproductive land is protected and supported, while managing the soil that serves to prevent fires,” said Patuanelli.

In Calabria, flames threaten the UNESCO World Geopark Aspromonte, the country’s national park. The head of the environmental NGO WWF called on Italy on Tuesday to “immediately intervene with additional air resources”.

“Otherwise, it will be too late and we will forever lose a priceless asset,” he lamented.

He also called for “increased monitoring in the field because in areas where fires have already been extinguished, there have been records of new outbreaks of fires, many of them caused by unscrupulous criminals,” he said.

Sardinia, where a A 35-year-old rural worker was arrested on Tuesday (10) on suspicion of setting fires, not rescued: 13 fires were recorded in just one day, six of which required aerial intervention.

According to Coldiretti, the country’s leading agricultural union, the number of fires has more than tripled this summer compared to the average in the same period between 2008 and 2020.

“On the one hand, if six out of ten fires are of criminal origin, on the other hand it is necessary to emphasize the consequences of abandoning plantations and not inspecting forests in the public domain”, highlights the Union, where forests and forests cover more than a third of the area of ​​Italy ( 11.4 million hectares). And he concludes by saying: “We have to end abandoning the field.”

In the coming days, the anticyclone responsible for the heat wave that hit Italy, named Lucifer, should move to the north, where temperatures should reach between 39°C and 40°C in Tuscany (the central part of the country), this weekend On August 15 and in Lazio (Rome region).

Video: Smoke from wildfires forces swimmers out of Italy