 Firefighters battled blazes in Italy's Sicily on September 23, which hit the Palermo and Messina areas, in the northern part of the island.Two people are reported to have died during the wildfires, lashed by strong Sirocco winds and high temperatures, and hundreds of tourists were evacuated from a hotel in the well-known tourist resort of Sifalu. Italian firefighters said the rescue force has been strengthened with the doubling of shifts in all the commands in Sicily, with 300 firefighters on, duty to extinguish the fires in the area.