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WORLD NEWS Monday 20 June 2022
Spain, Germany battle wildfires amid unusual heat wave

By JOSEPH WILSON are not expected to drop
Associated Press until Wednesday.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) They also asked farmers to
— Firefighters in Spain and stop using heavy machin-
Germany struggled to ery that could unintention-
contain wildfires on Sun- ally spark a fire.
day amid an unusual heat “The situation remains
wave in Western Europe for delicate. We have various
this time of year. active fires due to the ex-
The worst damage in Spain tremely high temperatures
has been in the north- and high winds,” Navarra
west province of Zamora regional vice-president Ja-
where over 25,000 hectares vier Remírez told TVE.
(61,000 acres) have been Remírez said that some vil-
consumed, regional au- lages had seen some build-
thorities said, while German ings damaged on their out-
officials said that residents skirts.
of three villages near Berlin Some wild animals had
were ordered to leave their to be evacuated from an
homes because of an ap- animal park in Navarra and
proaching wildfire Sunday. taken to a bull ring for safe
Spanish authorities said that keeping, authorities said.
after three days of high Wildfires were also active
temperatures, high winds A firefighter works in front of flames during a wildfire in the Sierra de la Culebra in the Zamora in three parts of northeast
and low humidity, some Provence on Saturday June 18, 2022. Associated Press Catalonia: in Lleida, in Tar-
respite came with drop- ragona and in a nature
ping temperatures Sunday try for June. Experts link the a reservoir some 500 meters have been deployed in park in Garaf, just south of
morning. That allowed for abnormally hot period for wide and reach the other Zamora, Navarra and Llei- Barcelona.
about 650 firefighters sup- Europe to climate change. side, to give you an idea of da. Firefighters said that 2,700
ported by water-dumping Thermometers have risen the difficulties we faced,” There have been no reports hectares (6,600 acres)
aircraft to establish a pe- above 40 C (104 F) in many Juan Suárez-Quiñones, an of lives lost, but the flames were scorched in Lleida.
rimeter around the fire that Spanish cities throughout official for Castilla y León reached the outskirts of They added that they have
started in Zamora’s Sierra the week — temperatures region, told Spanish state some villages both in Zamo- responded to over 200 dif-
de la Culebra. Authorities usually expected in August. television TVE. ra and in Navarra. Videos ferent wildfires just in Cata-
warned there was still dan- A lack of rainfall this year The fire in Zamora was start- shot by passengers in cars lonia over the past week.
ger that an unfavorable combined with gusting ed by a strike from an elec- showed flames licking the Germany has also seen nu-
shift in weather could re- winds have produced the trical storm on Wednes- sides of roads. In other vil- merous wildfires in recent
vive the blaze that caused conditions for the fires. day, authorities said. The lages, residents looked on days following a period
the evacuation of 18 vil- Authorities said that gusting spreading fire caused the in despair as black plumes of intense heat and little
lages. winds of up 70 kph (43 mph) high-speed train service rose from nearby hills. rain. The country’s national
Spain has been on alert for that changed course errat- from Madrid to Spain’s In central-north Navarra, weather agency said the
an outbreak of intense wild- ically, combined with tem- northwest to be cut on Sat- authorities have evacuat- mercury reached 39.2 C
fires as the country swelters peratures near 40 C, made urday. It was reestablished ed some 15 small villages as (102.6 F) in the eastern cit-
under record temperatures it very tough for crews. on Sunday morning. a precaution, as the high ies of Dresden and Cottbus
at many points in the coun- “The fire was able to cross Military firefighting units temperatures in the area on Sunday.q

Greek coast guard rescues 108 migrants;

4 missing

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — sailboat to an islet off the Policy Minister Ioannis Plaki-
Greek authorities said Sun- nearby island of Mykonos, otakis said.
day they have rescued 108 authorities said. Late Sunday afternoon, a
migrants from a sailboat The migrants were safely sailboat with 56 migrants
that was found rudderless transported to Mykonos. — 28 men, 16 women and
and leaking water in the They told authorities that 12 women — ran aground
Aegean Sea in near gale their boat had sailed from at an inlet on the island of
force winds. Turkey to an unknown des- Rhodes, authorities said.
The rescued migrants — 63 tination. The migrants, who are all
men, 24 women and 21 None of the migrants on well, made it to the shore
children — have told au- board were wearing a life on their own. This photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows a part
thorities there four other vest, nor was there any In unrelated migration cas- of a rescue operation on the island of Mykonos, Greece, on
people are missing. life-saving equipment on es in the neighboring coun- Sunday, Jun 19, 2022.
Reports of a sailboat adrift board, authorities said. try of North Macedonia, Associated Press
off the uninhabited island “Once again, the coast police said they discovered
of Delos reached the coast guard saved lives that the 71 migrants in two separate northern town of Kumano- The migrants are believed
guard late Saturday. It dis- ruthless trafficking networks operations late Saturday vo and found 44 Pakistanis to have entered illegally
patched three rescue ves- have exposed to mortal and arrested three men and one person from India. from Greece and were
sels and a tugboat. Early danger without even the suspected of human traf- Police arrested the home- waiting to be smuggled to
Sunday morning, rescu- barest protection mea- ficking. owner, a 41-year-old identi- Serbia on their way to un-
ers managed to tow the sures,” Shipping and Island Police raided a home in the fied only by his initials as U.F. identified EU countries. q