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18 bodies found as fires rage in Greece and Europe suffers another heat wave

The burned bodies of 18 people were found as wildfires ripped through Greece on Tuesday and countries across Europe sweltered under yet another extreme heat wave.
The dead, found near a village in northern Greece, may have been migrants, Reuters quoted the fire brigade as saying. Another person was killed in a fire northwest of the capital Athens on Monday.
As dozens of wildfires scorch Greece, other parts of the region are suffering under intense heat, as Europe's summer of extremes continues.
Flames burn a forest during a wildfire in Avantas village, near Alexandroupolis town, in the northeastern Evros region, Greece, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023.
Flames burn a forest during a wildfire in Avantas village, near Alexandroupolis town, in the northeastern Evros region, Greece, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Achilleas Chiras)
More than 20 countries are under heat warnings with temperatures reaching record-breaking levels in some areas.

'It's like war conditions'

Hundreds of firefighters in Greece are battling 65 wildfires that have broken out in the last few days, state-run ANMA news agency reported on Monday, citing Yiannis Artopios, an official from the Greek fire brigade.
Some of the major ongoing wildfires are in the Greek northeastern town of Alexandroupolis where 13 communities have been evacuated since Saturday, according to the fire brigade.
Two hundred patients were evacuated from two hospitals in the town on Tuesday. An Alexandroupolis Hospital Nurse, Nikos Gioktsidis, compared the situation to war, telling Reuters, "I've been working for 27 years, I've never seen anything like this. It's like war conditions, really."
As of Monday, fires have burned through more than 8,500 hectares, according to the European Union's Copernicus Emergency Management Service.
The European Union has deployed two firefighting aircraft from Cyprus and a team from Romania with 50 firefighters to help Greece control the fires.
"We are in state of emergency of 'Category 5' as we will be also on Tuesday due to the very high temperatures and the gale force winds," Artopios from the Greek fire brigade said on Monday, according to ANMA.
Greece has had a devastating wildfire season this year – experiencing its worst recorded fires in July since at least 2003.
Last month, deadly wildfires tore through parts of the Greek island of Rhodes, forcing thousands of tourists to flee their hotels in what Greek officials said was the largest evacuation effort in the country's history.
People react as they try to extinguish a wildfire in Avantas village, near Alexandroupolis town, in the northeastern Evros region, Greece, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023.
People react as they try to extinguish a wildfire in Avantas village, near Alexandroupolis town, in the northeastern Evros region, Greece, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Achilleas Chiras)
Fire burns on a hill near a hospital in Alexandroupolis, in the northeastern Evros region, Greece, early Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.
Fire burns on a hill near a hospital in Alexandroupolis, in the northeastern Evros region, Greece, early Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. (e-evros.gr via AP)
Out of control wildfires also continue to burn in Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands, with more than 12,000 people forced to flee their homes.
The Spanish government will declare the areas affected by the wildfires in Tenerife as a "disaster zone" once the blaze is under control, the country's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday during a visit to the Spanish island.

Red heat warnings

As parts of Greece and Spain burn, temperatures are reaching record levels in other parts of Europe.
There are 21 countries across the continent under heat warnings, with six under red heat warnings – the highest level – said MeteoAlarm, a network of European national weather services.
France is one of the worst affected.
The country's national meteorological agency Météo France warned on Sunday that this week's heatwave would be the "hottest of summer 2023," adding that it is rare for a heatwave of "such intensity" to occur so late in the summer.
People walk in a fountain during a heat wave in the center of Lyon, central France, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.
People walk in a fountain during a heat wave in the center of Lyon, central France, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
"Red-level" heat wave alerts were declared in four French departments on Monday: Ardèche, Drôme, Haute-Loire and Rhône.
These regions are all experiencing very high temperatures, with some pushing above 40°C.
Speaking to CNN affiliate BFMTV, French health minister Aurélien Rousseau said on Monday that "France could reach temperatures never measured before".
Some records have already been broken, according to data from Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian.
All-time records were broken in three communes, he said, including Puy St. Martin, a commune in Drôme, where temperatures reached 42.5°C on Monday.
People bathe in the sea during high temperatures in Marseille, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.
People bathe in the sea during high temperatures in Marseille, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Rousseau warned French people to be "extremely vigilant" in the coming days, stressing that the protection of the elderly, young children, isolated and disabled people remains at "the core" of the government's concerns.
Temperatures are also high in Italy, which has grappled with several searing heat waves this year. Savona, in the northwest, saw an all-time record high of 39.1°C on Monday.

Fears for Swiss glaciers

Switzerland, too, is experiencing high temperatures.
MeteoSchweiz, the Swiss weather service, said that a new record had been broken for the height of the "freezing level" – the point above the ground at which temperatures fall to 0°C.
A weather balloon had to climb to a record 5,298 metres (17,381 feet) above sea level before the zero degree limit was reached, MeteoSchweiz posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday. This is the highest freezing level since records began in 1954.
There are serious concerns for what this means for the health of the country's glaciers. Last year, Swiss glaciers recorded their worst melt rate since records began, losing six per cent of their remaining volume.
Europe's heat wave is expected to continue until at least Wednesday, before a cooling pattern brings some relief.
Scientists are clear that the kind of extreme weather Europe and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere are experiencing this summer will only become more common and more severe as humans continue to burn planet-heating fossil fuels.
July was the planet's hottest month on record and scientists found that the heat wave that scorched the Mediterranean, as well as parts of the US, would have been virtually impossible without the human-caused climate crisis.
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