- Three Turkish firefighters die in an accident.
- Greece reports 44 forest fires in 24 hours.
- Albania deploys 900 firefighters near tourist stations.
Athens: Firefighters fought on Monday to put out forest fires in three distinct provinces in Turkey, Greece and near a tourist resort in Albania, attached by strong winds after hot days in the Mediterranean region.
The smoke collapsed in the mountainous province of the Black Sea of Karabuk, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital Ankara, while a forest fire raged for a sixth day forced the evacuation of more than a dozen villages and sides of burned forests.
In the northwest province of Bursa, three firefighters were killed on Sunday when their vehicle crashed, the Ministry of Turkish forestry announced on Monday.
The crews fought two separate flames there on Monday, following the evacuation of more than 3,600 people in colonies in the provinces of southern Mersin and Antalya.
Turkey has undergone dozens of forest fires in recent weeks while temperatures have soaked, and 10 firefighters were killed last week fighting a fire in the central province of Eskisehir.
Hot and dry summers are common in the Mediterranean region, but more intense heat waves have contributed to destructive drilling fires in recent years in the midst of rapidly growing temperatures around the world.
At least 44 forest fires broke out in Greece in the past 24 hours, firefighters announced on Monday afternoon.
On the southern Greek island of Kythera, strong winds have revived a burning fire since Saturday. In Athens, the firefighters quickly contained a fire which broke out at the foot of Mount Hymettus, near a university campus and densely populated suburbs.
In Albania, more than 900 firefighters helped by the army fought to control a forest fire before reaching the seaside town of Saranda and other tourist stations in the south of the country on the Ionian coast.
Some 13 people have been arrested for criminal fire offenses in the past three days, police announced.
Bulgaria, helped by several European countries, has deployed fire-fighting planes to help tame a large forest fire near the Bulgarian-Turque border.
So far, the flames have burned around 16,000 acres in total. According to local media, two people were held by the authorities on the cause of fires.
During the weekend, several villages in Greece were evacuated and five people were injured in separate forest fires.
While Greece saw its third summer heat wave on Monday, rainy weather in Serbia helped firefighters control over 100 forest fires.
