Strong Earthquake Strikes Off Crete, No Damage Reported
The quake was at a depth of 22 miles near the island of Karpathos in the Mediterranean Sea, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said, prompting Greek authorities to issue a temporary tsunami warning.
Greece is one of Europe's most earthquake-prone countries and an unprecedented level of seismic activity shook the popular tourist island of Santorini for weeks earlier this year.
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USA Today
7 hours ago
- USA Today
Wildfires fanned by heatwave and strong winds rage across Europe
PATRAS, Greece,/MADRID, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Wildfires caused by arsonists or thunderstorms and fanned by a heatwave and strong winds wreaked destruction across southern Europe on Wednesday, burning homes and forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee. Fire has affected nearly 440,000 hectares (1,700 square miles) in the eurozone so far in 2025, double the average for the same period of the year since 2006, according to the EU Science Hub's Joint Research Centre. Flames and dark smoke billowed over a cement factory that was set alight by a wildfire that swept through olive groves and forests and disrupted rail traffic on the outskirts of the Greek city of Patras, west of Athens. "What does it look like? It looks like doomsday. May God help us and help the people here,' said Giorgos Karvanis, a volunteer who had come from Athens to Patras to help. Authorities ordered residents of a town of about 7,700 people near Patras to evacuate on Tuesday and issued new alerts on Wednesday, advising residents of two nearby villages to leave. More: European heatwave caused 2,300 deaths, scientists estimate On the Greek islands of Chios, in the east, and Cephalonia, in the west, both popular with tourists, authorities told people to move to safety as fires spread. In Spain, a volunteer firefighter died from severe burns and several people were hospitalised as state weather agency AEMET warned that almost all of the country was at extreme or very high risk of fire. The 35-year-old man had been attempting to create firebreaks near the town of Nogarejas, in the central Castile and Leon region, when he was trapped in the blaze, regional officials said. He was the sixth person to die this year in wildfires in Spain. Others include two firefighters in Tarragona and Avila, according to emergency services. Working in unprepared landscapes puts firefighters' lives at risk, said Alexander Held, a senior expert in fire management at the European Forest Institute, adding authorities should prepare by creating buffer zones and clearing combustible vegetation. "Take an industrial building and imagine there would be no fire detectors, no sprinkler systems, no fire protection doors and no escape routes – firefighters would just refuse to go in, but in our landscape we expect them to do this," Held said. Investing 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) a year in forest management could save 9.9 million hectares - an area the size of Portugal - and 99 billion euros spent on fighting fires and restoration work afterwards, according to Greenpeace. SUSPECTED ARSON Spanish Environment Minister Sara Aagesen told the SER radio station that many fires across the country were thought to be the work of arsonists due to their "virulence". A male firefighter was arrested on Tuesday for fires started in the Avila area north of Madrid two weeks ago, while police said on Tuesday they were investigating a 63-year-old woman for allegedly starting fires in Galicia's Muxia area in August. Police have also identified a suspect who is believed to have suffered burns to his hands after starting a small fire in a beachfront development in the southern coastal Cadiz area, Europa Press reported. Thunderstorms have caused other fires. More: Wildfire north of Los Angeles forces thousands to flee; containment grows On Tuesday, shortly after 5 p.m., Andalusia's fire department was flooded with calls by residents reporting a fire caused by a lightning strike on a chestnut and oak forest in Los Romeros, north of the city of Huelva. The fire prompted the evacuation of around 250 residents but was largely controlled by Wednesday morning. A blaze in Trancoso in Portugal that has been burning since Saturday got worse during the night as a lightning reignited an area that was thought safe, the civil protection service said. In Albania, Defence Minister Pirro Vengu said it was a "critical week", with several major wildfires burning across the country. Some 10,000 firefighters, soldiers and police emergency units struggled with a total of 24 wildfires on Wednesday, the defence ministry said. Flames reached two villages in the centre of the country, forcing villagers to flee, taking their livestock with them. "We are going in the middle of two rivers because the fire has arrived," said Hajri Dragoti, 68, from Narte, who fled with his wife taking a cow, a donkey and a dog. "We can't do anything, it is like gunpowder." Spain was in its 10th day of a heatwave that peaked on Tuesday with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), and which AEMET expected to last until Monday, making it one of the longest on record. Pope Leo moved his weekly audience from St. Peter's Square to an indoor venue in the Vatican, "to stay a little bit out of the sun and the extreme heat" as Italy's health ministry issued extreme heat warnings for 16 cities on Wednesday, with temperatures forecast to peak at 39C (102F) in Florence. ($1 = 0.8538 euros) (Reporting by Louiza Vradi, David Latona, Aislinn Laing, Ivana Sekularac, Ilse Filks, Andrei Khalip and Gavin Jones; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Alex Richardson and Giles Elgood)
NBC News
15 hours ago
- NBC News
Wildfires kill at least 3 and displace thousands across southern Europe
ATHENS, Greece — Wildfires intensified across southern Europe on Wednesday with a round-the-clock battle to protect the perimeter of Greece's third-largest city and at least three deaths reported in Spain, Turkey and Albania. Outside the Greek port city of Patras, firefighters struggled to protect homes and agricultural facilities as flames tore through pine forests and olive groves. Tall columns of flames rose behind apartment blocks on the outskirts of the city, while dozens of vehicles were torched as flames swept through a nearby impound lot. 'Today is another very difficult day with the level of fire risk remaining very high across many parts of the country,' Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis said. At least 15 firefighters were hospitalized or received medical attention for burns, smoke inhalation or exhaustion, he added. As water-dropping planes and helicopters swooped overhead, residents joined the effort, beating back flames with cut branches or dousing them with buckets of water. After heatwaves, resources stretched thin Firefighting resources were stretched thin in many affected countries as they battled multiple outbreaks following weeks of heat waves and temperature spikes across the Mediterranean region. On the Greek island of Chios, exhausted firefighters slept on the roadside following a night-long shift. Aircraft rotated between blazes on the western Greek mainland, the Patras area and the island of Zakynthos. Athens also sent assistance to neighboring Albania, joining an international effort to combat dozens of wildfires. An 80-year-old man died in one blaze south of the capital, Tirana, officials said Wednesday. Residents of four villages were evacuated in central Albania near a former army ammunition depot. In the southern Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried World War II-era artillery shells. Authorities said dozens of homes were gutted in a central region of the country. Deaths in Spain and Turkey Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed condolences after the death of a firefighting volunteer in the hard-hit Castile and León region north of the capital, Madrid, where thousands have been displaced by evacuations. 'The wildfire situation remains serious, and taking extra precautions is essential,' Sánchez wrote in an online post. 'Thank you, once again, to all those working tirelessly to fight the flames.' Evacuation centers were filled to capacity in parts of central Spain, with some spending the night outdoors on folding beds. The most severe fires pushed northward into more rural areas, where some residents hosed the walls of their homes to try and protect them from fire. Services along a high-speed rail link between Madrid and the northwestern Galicia region were suspended after fires got close to some sections of the tracks, state rail company Renfe said. In Turkey, a forestry worker was killed Wednesday while responding to a wildfire in a southern region, officials said. The Forestry Ministry said the worker died in an accident involving a fire truck that left four others injured. Turkey has been battling severe wildfires since late June. A total of 18 people have been killed, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers who died in July. In France, which is recovering from massive recent fires in the southern regions, temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) were expected for the third consecutive day. Officials issued weather alerts giving local authorities discretion to cancel public events and cordon off areas with high fire risks. Lightning storms and farming practices cited as possible causes Authorities across European countries have cited multiple causes for the massive fires, including careless farming practices, improperly maintained power cables and summer lightning storms. Law enforcement officials in North Macedonia also cited indications of arson, motivated by rogue developers. Firefighters struggled to contain a blaze at a nature reserve outside the capital, Skopje, on Wednesday. The European Union has rushed aid to fire-hit countries, including non-member states, with ground crews and water-dropping aircraft. Much of the recent effort was concentrated on Montenegro, where major wildfires continued to burn in rugged areas near the capital, Podgorica. 'Natural disasters know no borders,' Ljuban Tmusic, head of Montenegro's civil protection agency said. 'In Montenegro, the resources we have ... are clearly not enough.'
Boston Globe
20 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Wildfires intensify and kill at least three
As water-dropping planes and helicopters swooped overhead, residents joined the effort, beating back flames with cut branches or dousing them with buckets of water. Firefighting resources were stretched thin in many affected countries as they battled multiple outbreaks following weeks of heat waves and temperature spikes across the Mediterranean region. On the Greek island of Chios, exhausted firefighters slept on the roadside following a night-long shift. Advertisement Aircraft rotated between blazes on the western Greek mainland, the Patras area, and the island of Zakynthos. Athens also sent assistance to neighboring Residents of four villages were evacuated in central Albania near a former army ammunition depot. In the southern Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried World War II-era artillery shells. Authorities said dozens of homes were gutted in a central region of the country. Advertisement Spanish Prime Minister 'The wildfire situation remains serious, and taking extra precautions is essential,' Sánchez wrote in an online post. 'Thank you, once again, to all those working tirelessly to fight the flames.' Evacuation centers reached capacity in parts of central Spain, with some spending the night outdoors on folding beds. The most severe fires pushed northward into more rural areas, where some residents hosed the walls of their homes to try and protect them from fire. Services along a high-speed rail link between Madrid and the northwestern Galicia region were suspended after fires got close to some sections of the tracks, the state rail company, Renfe, said. In Turkey, a forestry worker was killed on Wednesday while responding to a wildfire in a southern region, officials said. The Forestry Ministry said the worker died in an accident involving a fire truck that left four others injured. Turkey has been battling severe wildfires since late June. A total of 18 people have been killed, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers who died in July. In France, which is recovering from massive recent fires in the southern regions, temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) were expected for the third consecutive day. Officials issued weather alerts giving local authorities discretion to cancel public events and cordon off areas with high fire risks. Advertisement Authorities across European countries have cited multiple causes for the massive fires, including careless farming practices, improperly maintained power cables, and summer lightning storms. Law enforcement officials in North Macedonia also cited indications of arson, motivated by rogue developers. Firefighters struggled to contain a blaze at a nature reserve outside the capital, Skopje, on Wednesday. The European Union has rushed aid to fire-hit countries, including non-member states, with ground crews and water-dropping aircraft. Much of the recent effort was concentrated on Montenegro, where major wildfires continued to burn in rugged areas near the capital, Podgorica. 'Natural disasters know no borders,' Ljuban Tmusic, head of Montenegro's civil protection agency, said. 'In Montenegro, the resources we have ... are clearly not enough.'
