Heatwave turns southeastern Europe into tinderbox as fires rage
Jul 25, 2007

Southeastern Europe was a tinderbox Wednesday in the grip of an unrelenting heatwave that has claimed hundreds of lives as wildfires swept Italy and bit into a national park in Slovakia.

Italy was sweltering under temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in places Wednesday and suffering devastating wildfires in central and southern regions.

"We've had 85 calls so far already for airborne intervention against fires," a public safety official told AFP in the afternoon as fires raged in the Abruzzo, Latium, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia regions. the rest