Paris (AFP) – Wildfires raging in Greece, which have left at least 79 dead, are the deadliest fire outbreaks this century in the world, second only to those which killed 173 in Australia in 2009.
Here is a recap:
– 2009: Australia –
In February 2009 at least 173 people died in fires in Australia’s outback notably in the southeastern state of Victoria, victim of a mixture of extreme temperatures and drought.
Entire towns and more than 2,000 houses were destroyed. The fires lasted several weeks before being contained by thousands of firemen and volunteers.
– 2007: Greece –
Forest fires killed 77 people in August 2007 in Greece, ravaging 2,500 square kilometres (965 square miles) in the southern Peloponnese and the island of Evia, northeast of Athens.
The fires raged for around 12 days, but most of the victims were killed early on when they became trapped in villages cut off by the flames.
– 2003, 2017: Portugal –
Sixty-four people were killed in the deadliest wildfires in Portugal’s history in June 2017.
The fires burned for five days in the central Leiria region, breaking out at the height of a summer heatwave. Many of the victims died trapped in their cars by the flames while trying to escape.
Violent winds fanned the fires, ravaging some 460 square kilometres of hillsides covered with pine and eucalyptus trees.
In 2003 gigantic fires caused by a heatwave left 20 dead and destroyed nearly 4,250 square kilometres between July and September in central and southern Portugal.
– 2010: Israel –
The worst inferno in Israel’s history killed 44 in December 2010. Most of the victims were prison guards trapped in their bus shortly after the fire broke as they raced to help evacuate a prison from the approaching flames.
The fire raged through the Carmel forest south of the Mediterranean city of Haifa for four days, destroying millions of trees and hundreds of homes.
– 2015, 2010: Russia –
In April 2015 huge fires that started in the Khakassia region of southeastern Siberia killed 34 people as well as hundreds of cattle and thousands of sheep.
The blaze, which spread as far as Mongolia and almost reaching the Chinese border, also destroyed 2,000 homes and 10,000 square kilometres of land.
Five years earlier, vast swathes of western Russia were ravaged by fires for weeks during an unprecedented heatwave and drought. Around 60 people died between July and August 2010 as fires raged in over 10,000 square kilometres of forest, bogs and brushwood, burning entire villages.
– 2003: United States –
Twenty-two people, including two in Mexico, died in forest fires that devastated California from late October 2003. Over two weeks, 3,000 square kilometres of vegetation were ravaged, 3,576 houses destroyed and 100,000 people evacuated.
In Arizona in the southeast, 19 firefighters were killed in July 2013 as they deployed fire containment lines to prevent a gigantic fire from spreading.
– Biggest fires in history –
The most deadly forest fire of all time is believed to be that of October 1871 at Peshtigo in the US state of Wisconsin, which left between 800 and 1,200 people dead. In a matter of hours the fire destroyed this forest village of 1,700 inhabitants and ravaged 16 other villages, spread over 5,000 square kilometres.
In May 1987, the most serious fire in China’s recent history killed at least 119 people and left 51,000 homeless in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
In France 82 people were killed battling flames in the southwest Landes region in August 1949. The victims — firemen, volunteers and soldiers — were caught in a ball of fire after the winds suddenly changed direction.