Still Scorching Temperatures in Sicily
It is emergency in Sicily now. According to ANSA, temperatures soared to above 40 degrees Celsius for (104 degrees Fahrenheit) the fourth day running with blackouts in Palermo and other cities caused by overheated cables and a spike in energy consumption fuelled by the use of air conditioning. Blackouts knocked out traffic lights in Palermo creating chaos on the city’s roads.
Hospital services were also affected by the outages with health officials warning that only emergency operations could be guaranteed. Electricity company Enel subsequently decided to ration power on the island, resorting to staged power cuts on a rota basis which it said would last until night set in. The company said it would continue this system until the end of the heat wave, which weathermen said would ease on Wednesday.
Sicilian emergency services, meanwhile, were flooded with calls from people feeling ill from the heat or reporting fires. Concern was mounting in a mountainous area to the northwest of Palermo where a huge fire was spreading under strong winds. Firefighters battled six other blazes near the Sicilian capital including one at Termini Imerese where automaker Fiat has a plant. Fiat closed down its factory after smoke from the fires penetrated the inside of the building.
The fire also came dangerously close to a local railway line and a major power plant, which had to be shut down. Several villas in the area were evacuated. Another major fire caused damage to a dozen homes near Cefalu’ on the north Sicilian coast. Farmers’ union Coldiretti said fire had damaged at least 1,000 hectares of grain crops across the island.
Source: ANSA
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