About 30,000 people were moved to safety on the Greek island of Rhodes where a wildfire burned on Saturday, while people in the southern US struggled under a record-breaking heatwave.
On the Mediterranean island of Rhodes, where a wildfire has been blazing for days, boats carried 2,000 people to safety from beaches in the east of the popular tourist island.
“This is not a fire that will be over tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. It’ll be troubling us for days,” Greek fire service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis told Skai TV.
Photo: AP
In Athens, the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had activated its crisis management unit to facilitate the evacuation of foreign citizens due to the ongoing forest fires.
Greece is fighting dozens of forest fires 11 days into a heatwave that has seen temperatures soaring above 40°C.
Across the southern US, about 80 million people were expected to be sweltering in temperatures of 41°C and above this weekend, the US National Weather Service said.
Temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday hit 46°C, extending a record-breaking streak to 22 consecutive days of highs above 43°C.
In Canada, which has been suffering wildfires that left Montreal blanketed in smog, torrential rain hit the eastern province of Nova Scotia, cutting off roads and threatening to burst a dam.
Four people were reported missing, including two children who had been in a car engulfed by flood waters.
Mearly 1,000 wildfires were burning across Canada, with 11.3 million hectares scorched this season by the deadly blazes.
Across the border in the US state of Washington, a wildfire burned more than 12,000 hectares in less than a day.
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