Should I cancel my trip to Europe? Things visitors should know about summer wildfires
By Sofia Andrade
When travel writer Jake Emen woke up in Sicily last week, he could see flames blazing on the hill directly across from his hotel room in the hillside town of Taormina.
That afternoon, while making the two-hour drive to Agrigento, he saw “dozens and dozens and dozens of fires along the way,” a mix of wildfires and controlled brush-clearing burns. His flight to Malta the next day would take him out of the Catania airport, where an unrelated fire likely caused by a malfunctioning printer cable, along with an ongoing heat wave, had created a chaotic scene.
Tourists sit inside a stadium following their evacuation during a forest fire, on Rhodes.Credit: AP
“There’s emergency tents outside. They’re providing people with water bottles for hydration because it’s so hot. The airport has no air conditioning or anything like that. And there’s thousands of people slammed in there,” Emen said of the scene at Sicily’s main airport. “It was absolute madness.”
Travellers and residents on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu faced a similar problem. Wildfires on the islands forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
Like many parts of the US, southern Europe has been rocked by record-breaking temperatures this summer, something scientists at the World Weather Attribution initiative recently found would have been “virtually impossible” if not for climate change.
While the deadly fires have been especially debilitating for residents whose homes and businesses have been destroyed, they also posed risks to travellers in the area. Here’s what to know if you have a scheduled trip to the Mediterranean as heat waves continue.
Where are fires raging?
Wildfires have been spreading throughout Mediterranean Europe and northern Africa. Along with the wildfires in Greece and southern Italy that recently made headlines for affecting tourist operations, Spain, Turkey, France, Algeria, Portugal, Tunisia and Croatia have all experienced fires.
Other places remain at high risk of wildfires, according to real-time fire danger projections by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
A representative at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, which manages EFFIS, said that while the interactive map can’t predict where fires will start, as “most fires in Europe and globally are caused by people” and negligence rather than natural causes, its forecast feature does show the areas that are most at-risk to fires spreading if they are started.
Would-be travellers shouldn’t use the fire danger forecast to decide where not to travel, the representative said, but they should be aware of the fire danger where they will be travelling.
Where fires are a threat also depends on the geography of the area. Antonios Diakakis, general manager of Casa Cook Rhodes in Greece, said that, while at the hotel in the northern town of Kolymbia, he didn’t feel the smoke or see the fires that were blazing in the southern part of the island.
Dario Vento, a freelance bike tour guide in Agrigento, Sicily, similarly said that “tourism wasn’t affected” where he lives despite the fires raging further north in Palermo and near Mount Etna.
How long are Mediterranean wildfires supposed to last?
There’s no foolproof way to determine how long a fire will last. Whether it is even possible to extinguish a fire depends on three factors: temperature, humidity and wind speed. If an area has high temperatures, low humidity and a high wind speed, it has a higher level of fire danger.
If fire danger is extreme in a given location, the European Commission representative said, it is impossible to stop or contain a fire in the area. Instead, firefighters have to wait until the fire danger level decreases before intervening.
In most places, fires have already been extinguished or otherwise controlled but firefighters remain on high alert.
Pierpaolo Nuzzo manages the Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa in Palermo. Nuzzo said the fires on the outskirts of the city caused “a lot of smoke and a lot of ashes” last week, as well as a temporary shutdown of the Palermo airport, but city transportation and planned events were “back to [normal] in just 24 hours” once fires were controlled.
Should I cancel my trip?
While this summer has been especially hot, fires in the Mediterranean are nothing new.
That doesn’t mean travellers should approach a summer in southern Europe as they would the same holiday during another time of year, but it does mean travellers should take necessary precautions to prepare for areas that are susceptible to extreme heat.
“Although I visit Italy every summer, I know it will be hotter than I am used to, so I am taking some extra precautions and advising my clients to do the same,” said Ann Castagna Morin, a Massachusetts-based travel agent who will be heading to Italy for three weeks next month.
In addition to always carrying an insulated water bottle, Castagna Morin recommended buying travel insurance and said that “it is a comfort to know you have coverage for evacuation and medical care should calamity strike.” Travellers should specifically look for insurance that covers flight and hotel cancellations, emergency evacuation and repatriation and international medical expenses, among other protections.
Should I make a backup plan?
Establishing contingency plans before flying can also help avoid crises when planes get cancelled or delayed. This means researching what other flights going out of the same airport as the scheduled flight will be going to the same or a nearby destination. Knowing your flight options is especially helpful if a flight is delayed and airline customer support lines are overloaded with other customers; if you do call, make sure you’re using an official number.
Avoid low-cost airlines with limited customer support.Credit: Bloomberg
While there is no guarantee that even the priciest accommodation and travel plans will remain unchanged in the face of wildfires and extreme heat, Castagna Morin and Emen both recommend avoiding low-cost airlines where possible, as these often provide less customer support in the case of delays or flight changes.
“My biggest takeaway for the would-be traveller to Europe right now is definitely to avoid EU budget carriers,” Emen said.
Working with a travel agent when possible can also help for the same reason, according to Anna Maria Ulisse, who runs a tour operator in Palermo. She said that while airline customer support can be hard to reach during a crisis like what Emen experienced in Catania, travel agents often have direct contacts at airlines, which means problems often “will get handled immediately.”
Should I prepare for evacuations?
While it is important to be prepared in the case of evacuation – which means keeping important items such as passports and medicine readily available – it is not often possible to plan an evacuation before arriving at a travel destination. Situations on the ground can change at a moment’s notice, which is why it’s often best to follow guidance from local officials and governments.
Many hotels also provide evacuation plans, which travellers can verify by calling ahead of time. Diakakis, of Casa Cook Rhodes, said that though the hotel was unaffected by the fires in the southern part of the island this week, it has an evacuation plan in place in case of an emergency. The hotel would work with local governments to ensure travellers are transported to a safe location and can make their way back home, if necessary.
Talking to drivers or guides about the topography and weather patterns of the area can also be helpful preparation. Following local guidance is safer than trying to come up with an alternate plan, especially in an unfamiliar place. “I would be very concerned with people trying to drive a car in Sicily who didn’t know what they were doing. It’s very winding roads,” Castagna Morin said. “You could drive right into a fire.”
The Washington Post
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