Hundreds of families homeless as fires rage in Greece and rain saves Turkey

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A local resident tries to contain a fire in Therakomacdonis, near Mount Parnitha, north of Athens, on August 7, 2021. Hundreds of firefighters set a fire on the outskirts of Athens with several fires raging in Greece. Image credit: Agence France-Presse

PEFKOVITO, Greece: Hundreds of firefighters battled record numbers of forest fires in Greece on Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but torrential rains brought some relief to hard-hit Turkey.

The fire service said more than 1,450 Greek firefighters, backed by at least 15 aircraft, were battling the forest fires, with reinforcements arriving from other countries.

“We are sending a team of experienced firefighters to support the Greek firefighters in fighting the wildfires,” British Home Secretary Priti Patel wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Egypt is also expected to send two helicopters and a Canadian firefighting plane to Spain.

With strong winds and temperatures expected to reach 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas on Saturday, fires in Greece are expected to continue for some time now. This year’s fires were much more devastating than in previous years.

In the past 10 days, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burned in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average number of hectares burned during the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares.

“When this nightmare summer ends, we will reverse the damage as quickly as possible,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowed on Saturday.

“The fire in Attica is dangerous. It is unpredictable,” Greek firefighting union chief Dimitris Statopoulos told Sky TV, referring to the wider region that includes the Greek capital. Image credit: Agence France-Presse

Thousands of people have fled their homes since wildfires broke out in the slopes of Mount Parnitha just north of Athens late Thursday, and authorities have ordered the evacuation of several suburbs. Image Credit: Reuters

A firefighter battles a raging forest fire in the suburb of Thrakomakdonis, north of Athens, Greece, August 7, 2021. Image source: Reuters

In Pefkovito, north of Athens, pensioner Tassos Tsilifakos struggled to contain his tears.

“This is a terrible disaster,” he told AFP.

“I really fear that maybe only our great-grandchildren will have a chance to walk again in these areas.”

A 62-year-old man from nearby Agios Stefanos told Alpha TV how after being evacuated he had to watch his house burn on TV. “My baby is still crying from the shock,” he said.

Rain helps Turkey

Greece and Turkey have been battling devastating fires for more than a week as the region suffers its worst heat wave in decades. Officials and experts have linked these extreme weather events to climate change.

So far, they have killed two people in Greece and eight in Turkey, with dozens hospitalized there within 10 days of the fires.

A draft UN report seen by AFP called the Mediterranean a “climate change hotspot”, warning that heat waves, droughts and fires will become more fierce in the future due to rising temperatures.

But the weather gave Turkey some relief on Saturday.

Officials in the Turkish port city of Antalya said the fires were brought under control in the southwestern province after rains fell there.

Heavy rains are expected to continue into the afternoon in areas including Manavgat, one of the areas worst affected by the fires.

The situation remained dangerous but around the tourist hotspot of Mugla, where at least three districts were ordered to evacuate.

More than 200 fires have occurred in 47 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said on Twitter early Saturday. Thirteen of those fires in five provinces are still burning.

Every now and then, scientists remind us of how climate change is changing the world we live in. In 2020, we’ve heard about icebergs liberating, droughts in Africa, wildfires in Australia, and floods in Asia. The problem is that “once in a while” has become a regular occurrence. We hear more stories about natural disasters now than we did two decades ago. Is there a reason for that? Why is there such a steady and rapid change in climate? Are we responsible for this? And if yes, can we do anything about it?

Fears of more high winds

Greece’s deputy civil protection minister, Nikos Hardalias, said on Saturday that 55 fires have broken out across Greece.

They were burning on Evia, the second largest island of the country, which is located east of the capital; in the Peloponnese region in the southwest; And at Fthiotida in central Greece.

Vanes Spanos, regional governor of central Greece, said the fire front in Evia alone stretched across 30 kilometres.

In the north of the island, 23 others were evacuated Saturday morning after 1,300 were pulled from beaches by ferry boats the night before. Navy warships were on high alert off the coast in anticipation of further evacuations.

The situation on the Attica peninsula was “more stable” as there were no strong winds in the area.

Meanwhile, officials reopened part of a highway linking Athens to the north of the country.

The governor of the Central Greece region, Phanes Spanos, told the Athens News Agency (ANA), that more than 300 families whose houses were burned are being accommodated in hotels.

The situation remained dire in Mani in the Peloponnese, where 5,000 people were evacuated on Friday.

Eleni Draculaco, mayor of eastern Mani, told ERT TV on Saturday that half of the municipality was destroyed by the fire. She blamed a lack of air support dripping with water during the critical first hours of the bushfires.

In Ilia, in the western Peloponnese, more villages were evacuated.

Meanwhile, the Afghan News Agency reported that two people have been charged with arson: A woman was arrested on Friday in Athens carrying two lighters, petrol and flammable materials, after a fire broke out there.

Also Friday, a 43-year-old man was arrested in Krioneri, North Attica.

the endings

Heat waves and droughts hit all over the world. Siberia reached 38°C, with most of the Arctic being 5°C warmer than average, and the wildfire season was exceptionally bad. Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second-lowest level on record and has set a few monthly records of melting.

Death Valley has experienced the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, 54.4 degrees Celsius, in at least 80 years.

Image Credit: Syed Lata/Gulf News

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