Tourists evacuated from Italian camping village as wildfire spreads
Rome, July 25 (Hibya)—Around a thousand tourists have been evacuated from a camping village in the southern Italian region of Puglia after a major forest fire broke out in a wooded area near the resort.
The fire started early Wednesday morning around the bay of San Felice, a forested coastal area near the town of Vieste on the peninsula of Gargano in northern Puglia.
Strong winds drove the flames towards the village of Baia di Campi, which can accommodate 1,200 guests and is about a kilometre from where the fire started.
Firefighters deployed three Canadair water bombers and a helicopter to fight the blaze. “The situation is critical,” Vieste Mayor Giuseppe Nobiletti told Italian media.
Tourists without cars were evacuated from the village by boat. They were housed in a gym in Vieste.
In recent weeks, forest fires have broken out across Italy, especially in the south and on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, due to extreme heat. According to figures from Coldiretti, Italy's main agricultural association, the fires have destroyed more than 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of land, of which almost 8,400 hectares were destroyed in the last month alone.
British News Agency
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