View to the Vesuviu volcano. Photo: IMAGO / IMAGO STOCK & PEOPLE / Profimedia
The Italian firefighters intervened on Sunday to counteract a vegetation fire on the flanks of Mount Vezuviu, all hiking routes to the volcano near the city of Naples being closed to tourists, AFP reports.
The National Fire Fire service said it has 12 teams on the ground and six Canadair aircraft that struggles the flames that included the National Park in southern Italy on Friday.
Reinforcements from other regions were mobilized, and the teams on the spot used drones to better monitor the spread of the fire, the service announced on Telegram.
“For safety reasons and … to facilitate fire extinguishing operations and cleaning in the affected areas, all activities along the network of Vezuviu National Park are suspended until a new notification,” the park announced in a statement issued on Saturday.
Nearly 620,000 people visited the volcano crater in 2024, according to the park.
The smoke of the fire could be seen from the area of the archaeological site of Pompeii, which remained open for tourists.
Experts say that European countries are becoming more vulnerable to vegetation fires due to the increasingly intense heat waves associated with global warming.
Problems in other countries in the Mediterranean basin
There are problems in Greece, where AFP told on Saturday that vegetation fires have transformed Palaia Fokaia, a locality south of Athens, one hour of walking, into a blackened soil and incinerated houses.
At 43 kilometers southeast of the capital of Greece, in Keratea, over 200 firefighters were fighting on Saturday with the flames burst in this rural area, which threatened the tourist resorts on the coast of the Attic region. In the fires here a 76 -year -old man died and housing, vehicles and other properties were affected, according to Ekathimerini.
In Turkey, due to vegetation fires, the Ministry of Transport announced the closure of the Dardanei Strait – which connects the Aegean of the Marmara Sea – for maritime traffic. It and Bosphorus are a vital commercial transport route between Europe and Asia, according to the BBC.
