They find five bodies burned by the fires in Sicily

The fires that broke out early this Tuesday in Sicily (southern Italy) continue to spread throughout the island while emergency teams have located five charred corpses on the outskirts of the city of Palermo.

After a week with temperatures that have reached 46 degrees due to the Caronte heat wave, the fire has spread throughout the island and is approaching tourist towns such as Catania and Taormina, while the authorities ask the population to avoid going outside open air due to risk of poisoning.

In Cinisi, a town located a few kilometers from the Palermo airport, they have found the bodies of two elderly people aged 77 and 75 who lived in a small house in precarious conditions.

The emergency services have also confirmed the death of another 88-year-old woman, who suffered from health problems and whom the rescue teams could not attend due to the ferocity of the flames.

In addition, two rangers are admitted to the Civic Hospital of Palermo with first to third degree burns, although medical assistance is also complicated since the proximity of the flames forced them to evacuate the ward of another hospital in the city.

According to the local press, there are more than 1,500 people displaced from towns such as Alimenusa, Gangi, Blufi, Misilmeri, Cefalù Bolognetta, Santa Flavia, Villabate, Partinico, San Cipirello and Corleone, where some houses have been completely charred.

Likewise, several sections of the highways that connect Palermo with other points in Sicily such as Messina and Mazara del Vallo remain closed.

For its part, on the opposite side of the island, to the east, the eviction of numerous villas built around the town of Taormina, a central point of Italian tourism in the height of the summer season, has begun.

Also in the vicinity of Catania, the second most populous city in Sicily, the flames have reached populated areas and devastated palm trees in urbanized streets, gardens and homes, where there is also no water or electricity due to the intense heat that is causing overloads in services. electrical.

“The situation throughout Sicily is very difficult due to the weather conditions that further complicate the work of those who must fight the flames,” said the president of the Sicily Region, Renato Schifani, who has asked for help for firefighters to arrive from other regions because “those who are in service in Sicily are already all employed on the various fronts”.

However, the fire is breaking out in other regions of southern Italy such as Puglia, where there are active fires in the provinces of Foggia and Lecce, and Calabria, which also require immediate attention.

Violent storms in the north cause deaths

At the same time, the north of the country suffered a violent storm tonight, accompanied by lightning and sudden gusts of wind, which caused significant damage, especially in Milan, where numerous streets have been flooded and dozens of trees have fallen.

Bad weather has so far claimed five victims. The first two were a 58-year-old woman due to the fall of a tree on the car in which she was going to work and a 16-year-old adolescent due to the fall of another tree in a camp in the province of Brescia.

During a radio interview, the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, assured that it was known “that today would be a very difficult day.”

For his part, the Italian Civil Protection Minister, Nello Musumeci, declared that “today is one of the most complicated days in recent decades” in the country “due to the storms, tornadoes and hailstorms in the North and the scorching heat and devastating fires in the center-south”.