English: Several destructive fires were burning in southern Italy and Sicily in mid-July 2017. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on July 12.

Red hot spots mark areas where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots mark actively burning fires.

A large area of fire and smoke can be seen south of Naples. Fires also burned on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. On July 12, the mayor of Naples requested the country declare a national state of emergency because of the fires raging in the Mount Vesuvius National Park in addition to almost 300 wildfires burning across the country. Military troops were called in to help control the blazes, according to local media reports, and more than 700 people were evacuated from a resort town due to approaching fires. The cause of the blazes is suspected to be human activity, possibly arson.

A smaller area of fire is located west of Messina, near the tip of Italy’s “boot.” Fires are also scattered across the island of Sicily.