Greece said on Wednesday that hundreds of firefighters were fighting a “huge battle” against fires around Athens and on the island of Rhodes, as they awaited the mobilization of 230 firefighters from Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The Greek Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said Wednesday that Greek firefighters have been waging a “big battle against the flames” since Monday in the coastal town of Loutraki, 80 kilometers west of the capital, in the town of Dervenochoria, 50 kilometers north of Athens and on an island in the Dodecanese archipelago, in the southeast of the Aegean Sea.
The minister also confirmed that 31 firefighters from Slovakia and 50 from Romania will be in Greek territory until Friday to support the operations on the ground, and the spokesman for the Greek firefighters, Iannis Artopios, clarified that Poland also responded to the request in the European Union. Civil Protection Mechanism, through which the 27 Member States provide disaster assistance with coordination from Brussels.
A spokesman for the Polish fire brigade, Andrzej Bartkowiak, said the country would send 149 firefighters and 49 vehicles to Greece to fight the flames, the PAP news agency reported.
Minister Vassilis Kikilias also warned of “difficult” weather conditions, with winds that could reach 60 kilometers per hour, and asked the Greek population to remain alert to the heat wave expected from Thursday, with maximum temperatures of 44° C on Friday and Saturday.
In Loutraki there are 120 firefighters, nine planes and 12 helicopters fighting the flames, while for the island of Rhodes 86 firefighters, three Canadair planes and three helicopters have been mobilized so far.
Another fire was recorded this Wednesday afternoon in the Laconia region, on the Peloponnese peninsula, in the south of the country, where six planes and a helicopter are fighting the flames.
On Monday, a fire in Kouvaras, a city about 40 kilometers south of Athens, left 3,472 hectares burned, including 164 of built-up areas.
Source: TSF
