Solar Activity – Climate Change and Natural Disasters in Mountain Regions - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 11

Fig. 2.1 Large number of fires was spreading from Italy over the Balkans, Hungary, Romania,
Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland on March 26, 2003. ( http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natural
Hazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id

= 8620 )

Pindus Mts. (Greece), the Carpathians (Romania), Stara planina (Serbia, Bulgaria),
the Dinaric Alps (Montenegro, Croatia), but also at the lower terrains of the
Mediterranean and the Black Sea coasts. The following quotation gives the con-
cise description of the events in Bulgaria: “Emergency services were inundated
with hundreds of calls from people suffering from heat stroke, dehydration and
headache. Only in Sofia 140 people fainted in the streets on Saturday. At least eight
deaths were directly attributed to the extreme temperatures. Most of the victims
were elderly people suffering from chronic diseases. Six people were killed in the
fires that started on Saturday and that continued well into the next week. There
were an estimated 1,530 cases of fire in just 4 days (Friday 20 to Tuesday 24 July,
2007). That's three times the yearly average. Fires raged in almost every corner
of the country but the largest fire was near Stara Zagora where 20 square miles
(50 km 2 ) of pine forest burned uncontrollably for 3 days. Firefighters were unable
to put out the fire by conventional means. Strong winds and the extremely dry air
quickly sparked new fires and by Sunday the situation was out of control. The gov-
ernment turned for help to Russia and Be-200 amphibious water bomber flew in on
Saturday to help fight the blaze near Stara Zagora. On Monday, more fires broke