The fires unleashed early Tuesday morning in Sicily continued last night to spread throughout this southern Italian island. The emergency teams located yesterday afternoon two charred corpses on the outskirts of the city of Palermo, surrounded by flames that forced the closure of its airport in the morning.
After a week with temperatures that have reached 46 degrees due to the heat wave caused by the anticyclone Caronte, the fire spread throughout the island and came close to tourist towns such as Catania and Taormina, while the authorities asked the population to Avoid going outdoors due to the risk of poisoning.
In Cinisi, a town located a few kilometers from the Palermo airport, the bodies of two people aged 77 and 75 who lived in a small house in precarious conditions were found. The emergency services also confirmed the death of an 88-year-old woman, who suffered from health problems and whom the rescue teams could not assist due to the ferocity of the flames.
In addition, two rangers were admitted to the Civic Hospital in Palermo with first to third degree burns, although medical assistance is also complicated since the proximity of the flames forced them to evacuate the ward of another hospital in the city.
According to the local press, there are more than 1,500 people displaced from towns such as Alimenusa, Gangi, Blufi, Misilmeri, Cefalù Bolognetta, Santa Flavia, Villabate, Partinico, San Cipirello and Corleone, where some houses were completely charred.
Likewise, several sections of the highways that connect Palermo with other points in Sicily, such as Messina and Mazara del Vallo, were closed. For its part, on the opposite side of the island, to the east, the eviction of numerous villas built around the town of Taormina, a central point of Italian tourism in the height of the summer season, began.
Also in the vicinity of Catania, the second most populous city in Sicily, the flames reached populated areas and destroyed palm trees in built-up streets, gardens and houses, where there is also no water or electricity due to the intense heat, which caused overloads in electrical services. .
"The situation throughout Sicily is very difficult due to the weather conditions that further complicate the work of those who must fight the flames," said the president of the Sicily region, Renato Schifani, who has asked for help to get firefighters from other regions because "those who are in service in Sicily are already all employed on the various fronts". However, the fire also broke out in other southern regions, such as Puglia, with fires in the provinces of Foggia and Lecce, and Calabria, which also required immediate attention.
At the same time, northern Italy suffered a violent storm on Monday night, accompanied by lightning and sudden gusts of wind, which caused extensive damage, especially in Milan, where numerous streets were flooded and dozens of trees fell. Bad weather claimed two victims: in the province of Monza, a 58-year-old woman caused by a tree falling on the car in which she was going to work; and a 16-year-old girl scout for the fall of another tree on her tent, in the province of Brescia.
In an interview, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that it was known that "it would be a very difficult day." For his part, the Minister of Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci, declared that it was "one of the most complicated days in recent decades" in Italy "due to the storms, tornadoes and hailstorms in the north and the scorching heat and devastating fires in the center-south”.
