Thousands flee Greek island as wildfires ravage forests and homes | Greece

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Thousands of bushfires that destroyed vast swathes of pine forests and homes on Greece’s second largest island, Evia, have fled as devastating summer fires erupt from southern Europe to Siberia.

“We have another difficult evening, another difficult night,” Greek Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said on Sunday, adding that almost a week after the fires broke out, strong winds were driving two main fire fronts in the north and south of the island.

Seventeen firefighting planes and helicopters were operating on the island, northeast of the capital, Athens, as fires settled in the northern suburbs and nearby Peloponnese, although the risks of reviving them remained high.

Wildfires have ravaged vast areas of southern Europe for two weeks as the region has been exposed to a severe heat wave for three decades. Ten died in Greece and Turkey, and many were hospitalized. Italy also suffered losses estimated at millions of euros.

Huge fires have also raged across Siberia in northern Russia for several weeks, leading to the evacuation of dozens of villages on Saturday. Wildfires have burned nearly 6 million hectares (15 million acres) of land in Russia this year, while hot, dry and windy conditions have fueled devastating fires in California.

The Greek Coast Guard has evacuated more than 2,000 people from Evia by sea. Photo: Petros Karagias/Associated Press

Rain eased the situation in Turkey over the weekend, but record temperatures, which experts have linked to the climate crisis, continued unabated in Greece, where a helicopter transported an injured firefighter from Mount Parnitha, north of Athens, on Sunday.

The Coast Guard evacuated more than 2,000 people by sea, including 349 Sunday morning, from densely forested Evia, a popular summer holiday destination, and ferries stood ready to take off for more as hell forced authorities to order residents to leave dozens. villages.

‘Greece is on fire’: Thousands flee Athens suburb as wildfires spread – VIDEO

A Greek coast guard boat rescued 23 stranded people on shore patrolling the Evia coast late Sunday. With temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) and conditions extremely dry, the Coast Guard said three patrol boats, four naval vessels, one ferry and two tourist boats, as well as fishing boats and private barges, are ready to evacuate more people from the northern coastal village of Pefke.

“I am angry. I have lost my house … Nothing will be the same the next day,” Vasilikia, a resident, told local reporters on a rescue ferry. “It is a disaster. it’s huge. Our villages have been destroyed, nothing is left of our homes and property and nothing.”

While 260 firefighters from Greece and another 200 from Ukraine and Romania battled the blazes, young people carried the elderly and infirm residents to safety across the sand. Others fled their villages on foot overnight amid horrific scenes.

Witnesses said the heat was so intense that the water evaporated before it reached the flames. The governor of central Greece, Vanes Spanos, said the situation in the north of the island had been “extremely difficult” for nearly a week.

“The fronts are vast, and the area of ​​scorched earth is vast,” Spanos said. He said more than 2,500 people have been accommodated in hotels and other shelters. Greece has deployed the army to help fight the fires, and 10 countries including France, Egypt, Switzerland, Spain and Britain have sent aid, including personnel and aircraft.

Hardelis said conditions in Evia were particularly harsh for the firefighting planes and helicopters, whose pilots faced “a great danger” with limited visibility, atmospheric turbulence and strong wind currents from the fire, he said.

And Serbia announced, on Sunday, that it will send 13 vehicles with 37 firefighters and three firefighting helicopters to Greece, where during the past ten days 56,655 hectares of land have burned, compared to an average between 2008 and 2020 of 1,700 hectares.

The causes of the fires are being investigated, and many believe they were started on purpose. Greek police spokesman, Apostolos Skrikas, said 10 people, including a 71-year-old man in the Peloponnesian region of Messinia, had been arrested on suspicion of arson. Nine others were questioned. He said 500 police have been sent to monitor the areas where the fires have been put out.

Many villages in Evia were only saved because young people ignored evacuation orders and stayed put to keep the fires out of their homes, Giorgos Tsaporniotis, Mayor of Mantodi in Evia, told local media.

Many villagers criticized the authorities’ response. “The state is absent,” Yanis Slimes told AFP. “For the next forty years we will have no work, and in the winter we will be drowned by the floods without the forests that protected us.”

Residents fight forest fires in the village of Goff in Evia. Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

In Turkey, earlier firefighters described the titanic efforts of many. Günaydın Sözin, 48, of the Istanbul Fire Service, told the Guardian he had been a firefighter for 21 years but had never been called to fight forest fires before.

He and 24 of his department colleagues helped fight a fire near Kemerkoy Thermal Plant in Mugla Province for five days, he said, “working day and night… The fire area is so big that it has created its own climate and sea air is causing more winds this in Reality makes it burn even more.”

The fire works “in a different way because of the olive trees,” said Suzan. “It’s very greasy, so spraying the bark with the hose isn’t enough — it’s burning on the inside, because of the oil, so we have to get close enough for the water to flow down the trunk from the top.”

He said locals had been of “tremendous help”, bringing everything from food to cold water and even clean T-shirts. But he said his team “saw a lot of dead creatures, lizards, everything you can think of.” “We saved a turtle.”

Yusuf Dogan Gürer, 36, deputy head of the Avrupa Yakasi (European side) fire department in Istanbul, said the firefighters pushed their vehicles and bodies to the limit to try to get as close to the fires as possible.

“She must be in good physical shape, much more than we are used to in the city,” he said. We had to evacuate the area three times – never before when we work anywhere else. Once upon a time, we got stuck inside the flames.”

He said the experience was challenging, but “it taught us a lot. The way the fire moves and how fast it goes are the things we need to adapt to. Phones don’t work properly, so coordination is difficult. We’ll stay here as long as we need it.”

AFP, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report

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