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Italy struggles with wildfires, heatwave
Italy struggles with wildfires, heatwave
Italian firefighters battled dozens of wildfires Wednesday in Sicily, where one inferno forced a clinic to be evacuated.
Temperatures topped 40C and gusts of hot wind fanned the flames on the southern island, where wildfires have been raging for several days.
Rome meanwhile strugged with an intense summer heartwave that prompted air-conditioned cinemas to offer free places, city officials said.
Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as fires and heatwaves more likely and more severe.
Sicily's regional president Renato Schifani said that nearly 50 blazes out of 344 reported on Wednesday were still beyond firefighters' control.
Some 6,000 forest workers, firefighters and civil protection agents were battling the fires, authorities said.
One fire raging for several days in the centre of the island forced the evacuation of about 100 residents around Castronovo and Santo Stefano Quisquina and 22 patients in a clinic, officials said.
Firefighters have reported 1,000 wildfires since Saturday across Sicily but no casualties.
A civil protection spokesman told AFP the situation was "serious" and that the high temperatures and lack of rain had helped the fires spread.
The Castronovo and Santo Stefano Quisquina fire temporarily cut off drinking water supplies to around 20 municipalities, according to the distribution company.
- Cinema relief -
The Rome scheme will turn 11 cinemas and 11 libraries into climate refuges until August 4.
Organisers will offer free places for 10 Italian films, with each film shown twice a day. The libraries will offer visitors water.
"Climate change is unfortunately a reality. It affects people's lives, their health, their social interactions and their ability to do things during those hours and days," Massimiliano Smeriglio, Rome's councillor for culture, told reporters.
He added that the project aims to create places "where people can also overcome the isolation caused by not being able to stay outdoors".
Rome's average temperatures have risen by three degrees Celsius since the 1980s, compared with around 2C in other European capitals, according to an ISTAT report published last month.
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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
