Firefighters are battling hundreds of
blazes that are being helped by the Lucifer heatwave and are
devouring many hectares of forest in various parts of Italy on
Thursday, with Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia and Campania hit
especially hard.
The wildfires claimed three lives on Wednesday, two in Calabria
and one in Sicily.
The Lucifer heatwave saw a temperature of 48.8°C registered in
the province of Siracusa on Wednesday by Sicily's SIAS agency in
what, if confirmed, will be a new European record.
What's more, according to forecasts, the heatwave has not
reached its peak yet.
That is is expected to come on Friday, when 15 cities are set to
be on red alert.
When a city is on red alert it means the heat is so intense it
is a danger to the health of the general population and not just
the elderly and the fragile.
The 15 cities that will be on red alert on Friday are Bari,
Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Cagliari, Campobasso, Florence,
Frosinone, Latina, Palermo, Perugia, Rieti, Rome, Trieste and
Viterbo.
Ten of those cities were on red alert on Thursday.
Scientists say the climate crisis is causing heatwaves and
extreme weather events, such as wildfires, to be more frequent
and more intense.
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