There have been numerous wildfires in the southern district of Dropull, 250 kilometers south of the capital Tirana. Fires there have been made worse by wind with firefighters hampered by a lack of equipment and the means to access the remote mountainous areas.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Authorities in Albania have requested assistance from the European Union to help tackle wildfires
00:08in the south of the country.
00:11The interior minister said on Thursday that the government had asked for help from the
00:15European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre.
00:20We are in contact with the European Solidarity Mechanism Centre,
00:27through which we must continue the fight against wildfires,
00:32because, as we have seen, it is impossible to deal with a large part of the wildfires.
00:43He said firefighters and military personnel were having trouble accessing the remote
00:48mountainous areas where the fires are burning and that they only had one Cougar helicopter
00:53at their disposal.
00:57There have been numerous wildfires in the southern district of Dropol, 250 kilometers
01:02south of the capital Tirana.
01:05Albania has been hit by a heatwave with temperatures reaching 42 degrees Celsius in some central
01:11areas.
01:12The defence ministry says that extreme heat has caused at least 23 wildfires to break
01:17out in the last 24 hours alone.
01:21Meanwhile, the heatwave, which has affected parts of central and southern Europe, has
01:25sent the mercury rising in nearby Serbia.
01:29Authorities there recorded temperatures in the north of around 35 degrees Celsius and
01:34in the capital Belgrade, doctors reported treating people who had collapsed, felt dizzy
01:39or complained of headaches due to the heat.
01:44And it's a similar situation in Slovenia.
01:47People in the capital Ljubljana have resorted to standing under improvised sprinklers to
01:52keep cool.
01:54Severe weather warnings are in place in several countries across Europe, with temperatures
01:58expected to peak at around 40 degrees Celsius in some areas.