Scorching heat and forest fires continue to cause problems for the Mediterranean neighbors.

On the Greek island of Evia, the fire brigade achieved initial successes in the fight against a devastating forest fire on Wednesday, but on the Peloponnese peninsula, the fight against a fire had to be expanded.

In Algeria, the number of fire victims rose to 65 according to state television. Record temperatures were predicted for Italy, which is also suffering from forest fires.

"I think we can say that the fire fronts are slowly being brought under control," said the mayor of the city of Istiea on Evia, Giannis Kontzias, on the state television broadcaster ERT.

"Yesterday we saw the sunlight for the first time in days," he added, referring to the huge billows of smoke over Euboea.

The fire had already broken out nine days earlier.

The fires on Evia and other parts of the country have already killed three people and hundreds more lost their homes.

In addition, part of the income from tourism and agriculture, which is so important for Greece, was lost.

The local businesses are threatened with "extermination", warned Kontzias.

The worst heat wave in Greece in decades, which the authorities attribute to climate change, contributed to the fire disasters.

In the mountain region of Gortynia on the Peloponnese peninsula, the fire brigade focused on Wednesday on keeping the fire away from the densely forested Mainalo mountain.

"Villages don't seem to be in danger at the moment (...), but the conditions change every hour," said the Vice-Governor for the Arcadia region, which also includes Gortynia, Christos Lambropoulos, on ERT.

The fire brigade in Gortynia received reinforcements from numerous emergency services from abroad on Wednesday, including Germany, France, Great Britain and the Czech Republic.

According to the German Fire Brigade Association, 168 emergency services were deployed from Hesse and 56 more from North Rhine-Westphalia.

A total of 21 planes and helicopters, 250 vehicles and more than 1200 firefighters have been promised to Greece.

Almost 900 firefighters, including emergency services from countries such as Cyprus, Slovakia and Ukraine, were on duty on Evia.

Seven fire-fighting planes and helicopters from abroad also took part in the fire-fighting work.

Many people on Evia feel abandoned by the government.

Local politicians accuse the government of having sent fire-fighting planes to the island too late.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized in a televised address to his compatriots on Monday evening.

At the same time, he emphasized that the fire brigade had to fight 580 fires in the past few days, which had been "difficult to extinguish" due to an "unprecedented heat wave and a long-lasting drought".

In Italy, the national weather service warned of record heat.

The previous national heat record of 48.5 degrees in Sicily, which was measured there in 1999, is expected to be exceeded on Wednesday.

For the southern mainland regions of Calabria, Apulia and Campania, 39 to 42 degrees were calculated.

The high "Lucifer" causing the heat wave is expected to move north in the coming days and bring temperatures of around 40 degrees to Tuscany and the Lazio region in central Italy on the weekend.

For the fire brigade in Calabria and Sicily, the high temperatures are extremely bad news as the forest fires continue to rage.

Tunisia and Algeria are also suffering from the heat wave. In northern Algeria, the fire brigade and army fought 69 forest fires on Wednesday, mostly in Kabylia, a heavily forested mountain region east of the capital Algiers. According to state television, the death toll rose to 65, including 28 soldiers. Twelve soldiers injured in rescue missions were therefore in mortal danger.

Eight people were killed in forest fires in Turkey this month. Now the Black Sea region in the north of the country is also plagued by heavy rains and floods. The power went out in several villages in Bartin province and a bridge collapsed, the civil protection department announced on Wednesday. According to media reports, one person died of a heart attack and several other people were injured. Further east in Sinop Province, a house collapsed and cars were stuck in a body of water. A hospital had to be evacuated and several streets were closed. The authorities warned of further heavy rains. In the north of Turkey, heavy rains often occur in summer, which trigger flash floods. Last year, at least five people died in the region in floods.