BALKANS:Scores of forest fires raged across the Balkans yesterday as the second fierce heatwave in a month gripped the region, prompting some countries to declare a state of emergency as people perished and infrastructure wilted in record temperatures.
Thirty people have died and 19,000 have been admitted to hospital in Romania, where the government has been forced to declare a "Code Red" emergency just a few weeks after another spell of fierce heat killed a similar number of people.
As Britain fights its worst floods in decades, swathes of woodland in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro are in flames and Serbia is fighting about 50 forest fires, as temperatures across the region soar towards 45 degrees (113F).
"I spoke with the Greeks and the Bulgarians to ask for help, but they have the same problem," said Predrag Maric, chief of Serbia's police rescue department. "We hoped a Russian water-bomber would arrive in the morning, but they had to go help in Bulgaria where the situation is critical. And today will be the hottest day of the year."
In Macedonia, one man died and 20 people were rescued when a fire reached the outskirts of the country's second largest city Bitola, where shells dropped during the first World War have started exploding in the heat.
"A lot of this ordnance could be set off by the high temperatures and there is a risk for large explosions," said Kostadin Popovski, head of an army's mine division.
Vladimir Taleski, mayor of Bitola's 130,000 people, added: "The night was awful. This morning we managed to contain the fire but the situation is still alarming." In Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo, police, forestry officials and soldiers from the Nato-led peacekeeping force were battling about 15 forest fires.
"We have ordered all fire fighters to work," said Mahir Hasani of Kosovo's emergencies department. "There is no day off, no holiday for anybody. We are on high alert."
In Greece, emergency services were fighting fires that have devastated 32,000 hectares of woodland over the last month, including one that destroyed 5,600 hectares of forest on Mount Parnitha overlooking Athens, part of which is highly-prized national park. A fire-fighting plane crashed earlier this week, and another went down in Italy, killing three people in total.