Athens, August 24 (RHC)-- In Greece, the remains of at least 18 people believed to be asylum seekers were found in the Dadia Forest, where wildfires have been blazing for nearly one week.

The dense forest is near the Turkish border in northeastern Greece, making it a common migration route for people fleeing Syria and other countries in the region with the hopes of reaching Europe.

Blistering heat waves and dry and windy conditions have set off dozens of wildfires across Greece. Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed to fight the blazes, while hospitals and clinics are almost at capacity. 
A nurse in the city of Alexandroupolis, Nikos Gioktsidis, told reporters: “I’ve been working for 27 years. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s like war conditions, really, stretchers everywhere, patients here, IV drips there.  We had to arrange them by clinic.  We had to get them on their meds, their serums, everything.  It was like a war, like a bomb had exploded.”

Countries across Europe are in the midst of yet another heat wave as temperatures hit or top 104 degrees Fahrenheit in Italy and France.

In related news, in the United States, heat indexes have been approaching 130 degrees in some areas as triple-digit temperatures scorch much of the Midwest, the Central Plains and southern states.  Nearly 150 million people were under heat alerts Tuesday.