ATHENS: Firefighters struggled Thursday in opposition to sturdy winds and sizzling, dry circumstances to tame a number of wildfires ravaging Greece, together with one within the nation’s northeast that officers say is the biggest recorded within the European Union.
The wildfires have left 20 folks lifeless during the last week. Eighteen of these, together with two boys aged between 10 and 15, are believed to be migrants who crossed the close by border with Turkey. Their our bodies have been discovered close to a shack in a burnt forest space close to Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece. Sixty firefighters have been injured, hearth division spokesman Ioannis Artopios stated.
The wildfire within the Alexandroupolis area, burning for a sixth day, mixed with smaller fires to create an enormous blaze that consumed properties and huge tracts of forest and triggered a number of evacuations of villages and of the town’s hospital.
With greater than 730 sq. kilometers (282 sq. miles) burned, the Alexandroupolis blaze was the EU’s largest on report, European Commissioner for Disaster Administration Janez Lenarcic stated on X, the social media platform previously generally known as Twitter.
“We must continue strengthening national & collective prevention and preparedness efforts in view of more brutal fire seasons,” he tweeted.
Elsewhere in Europe, fires in Spain’s Canary Islands and northwestern Turkey have been being introduced below management, officers stated.
Firefighters in Greece tackled 104 fires throughout the nation within the 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday night, 69 of which have been new wildfires, the hearth division stated.
One of many main blazes was on the outskirts of the Greek capital, the place flames scorched properties on Wednesday and burned into the nationwide park on Mount Parnitha, one of many final inexperienced areas close to Athens. By Thursday night time, the state of affairs appeared considerably improved, though firefighters have been nonetheless coping with flare-ups, the hearth division stated.
With greater than 730 sq. kilometers (282 sq. miles) burned, the Alexandroupolis blaze was the EU’s largest on report (AP)
Greece’s Local weather Disaster and Civil Safety Minister Vassilis Kikilias stated arson was accountable for a number of the blazes close to Athens.
“Some … arsonists are setting fires, endangering forests, property and above all human lives,” Kikilias stated in a televised assertion. “What is happening is not just unacceptable but despicable and criminal.”
The minister stated 9 fires had been set within the house of 4 hours Thursday morning within the space of Avlona, within the northern foothills of Mount Parnitha.
“You are committing a crime against the country,” Kikilias stated. “We will find you. You will be held accountable to justice.”
Police on Thursday arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of arson for allegedly setting a minimum of three fires within the Avlona space. A search of his dwelling revealed kindling, a hearth torch gun and pine needles, police stated.
With firefighting forces stretched to the restrict, Greece has requested different European international locations for help. Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Cyprus despatched plane, whereas dozens of Romanian, French, Czech, Bulgarian, Albanian and Slovak firefighters have been serving to on the bottom.
Artopios, the Greek hearth division spokesman, stated 260 firefighters, together with greater than a dozen from France, battled the Parnitha hearth supported by 10 planes and 11 helicopters. Bulgarian, Albanian, Romanian and Czech firefighters with automobiles have been serving to within the Alexandroupolis hearth.
Greece suffers harmful wildfires each summer season. The deadliest killed 104 folks in 2018 in a seaside resort close to Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Authorities have since erred on the aspect of warning, ordering evacuations at any time when inhabited areas are below menace.
In 2007, a sequence of devastating wildfires that affected primarily the southern Peloponnese area killed greater than 70 folks by the tip of that summer season and burnt round 2,700 sq. kilometers (1,040 sq. miles).
Final month a big wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes compelled the evacuation of some 20,000 vacationers. Days later, two air pressure pilots have been killed when their water-dropping airplane crashed whereas tackling a blaze on the island of Evia.
With their sizzling, dry summers, southern European international locations are notably vulnerable to wildfires. EU officers have blamed local weather change for the rising frequency and depth of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst yr for wildfire harm on report after 2017.
In Spain’s Tenerife, a hearth that has scorched 150 sq. kilometers (58 sq. miles) was being introduced below management.
Canary Island regional President Fernando Clavijo stated Thursday the blaze had “not gained a single square meter” for the primary time in over per week. Of the 12,000 folks compelled to evacuate their properties earlier within the week, solely about 200 have been nonetheless unable to return.
In Turkey, firefighters within the northwestern Canakkale province introduced a wildfire below management Thursday, lower than 48 hours after it erupted amid excessive temperatures and robust winds, Turkish Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli stated.
Yumakli stated the hearth, which had compelled the evacuation of 11 villages, had affected 40 sq. kilometers (15 sq. miles) together with 14 sq. kilometers (5.4 sq. miles) of agricultural land.
A firefighting volunteer who was injured and 6 different individuals who suffered from smoke inhalation have been being saved below remark in hospitals, Yumakli stated.
“We are extremely happy that there was no loss of life,” Yamukli stated. “However, we are heartbroken for other creatures of the ecosystem that were affected.”
Transport visitors via the Dardanelles Strait, a significant maritime thoroughfare linking the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara, was being partially restored to 1 lane solely, after being utterly suspended as fire-dousing plane use the waterway to choose up water.