Italy’s Mount Vesuvius, a popular tourist destination, closes over wildfire

The Italian firefighters and the army approached a forest fire on Sunday on the sides of Mount VesuveWith all the hiking roads in the volcano near Naples closed to tourists.

The National Fire Service said that he had 12 teams on the field and six Canadir planes fighting the fire, which has been ripping out the National Park in southern Italy since Friday. The park where a volcanic eruption buried the ancient town of Pompei In 79 AD is a major tourist destination.

“The fight against fires continues constantly on three fronts,” the Campania region said in a statement.

The authorities said that the fires are largely on the slopes on the side of Mount summ that of Vesuvius, which is characterized by its dense vegetation.

The army has created firefighters and strengthening firefighters were brought to other regions of Italy, while the on -site teams used drones to better monitor the spread of the fire, the region and firefighters said.

Fire smoke could be seen from the archaeological site of Pompeii, which was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in Roman times. However, the site remained open to tourists.

The head of the park, Raffaele de Luca, said that the affected area covered some 500 hectares, more than 1,235 acres.

“For security reasons and to facilitate fire -fighting and cleaning operations in affected areas, all activities along the Vésuve National Park trails are suspended until further notice,” said the park in a statement on Saturday.

According to the park.

Experts say that European countries are becoming more and more vulnerable to forest fires due to Intensification of summer heat waves linked to global warming. Parts of the continent had recorded her hottest June in recent history.

The abnormally hot weather has revealed millions of Europeans to high thermal stress with temperatures in June more typical of July and August, said Samantha Burgess of the European Center for average weather forecast.

In Spain, more than 1,000 people were evacuated Sunday in the northwest region of the country while forest fires spread, powered by hot temperatures and strong winds, the authorities said.

About 400 people were moved to and around the city of Carucedo, and 700 others from several cities near the UNESCO Medules World Heritage site, an old Roman gold extraction area known for its striking red landscape, local officials said.

Last week, France fought against the authorities called the largest forest fire in the country for decades. About 1,400 firefighters were deployed on Saturday in the French region in the south of the Aude to prevent it from turning on, the Associated Press reported. High temperatures in the coming days should complicate firefighters.

On Mont Vesuve, “fire fighting efforts are particularly delicate due to weather conditions – high temperatures and wind – and pine needles, which contribute to the spread of flames,” said Italo Giulivo, head of the region of civil protection of the region.

The largest agricultural association in Italy, Coldiretti, said that fires were “a huge disaster” for vineyards and farms in an area well known for its wine, apricots and tomatoes.

The local prosecutors’ office has opened an investigation into the origin of fires.

In Greece, a person was killed after a massive forest fire quickly spread in the south on Friday, destroying the houses and forcing the evacuations, the partner of CBS News BBC reported.