Greece is “at war” against the forest fires that ravage the country and has “three more difficult days” ahead of it due to high temperatures, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared on Monday.
“We are at war against… fires” and “we still have three difficult days ahead of us,” Mitsotakis told the Greek parliament.
Firefighters continue this Monday fighting the forest fires caused by the heat wave that hit Greece, after the unprecedented withdrawal of thousands of tourists on the islands of Rhodes and Corfu.
At least eighteen towns on the Greek island of Corfu, in the Ionian Sea, have had to be evacuated this Monday, in addition to seven other towns on the island of Euboea, due to the huge fires, while firefighters continue to fight the flames on the island of Rhodes for the seventh consecutive day.
The bushfire prompted the “preventive evacuation of 2,466 people” overnight from Sunday to Monday in Corfu, said Yannis Artopios, a spokesman for the fire department, stressing that no houses or hotels have been destroyed so far.
In Corfu, some 60 firefighters, with 21 vehicles, two helicopters and two planes are fighting the fires on Monday.
On the island of Euboea, northeast of Athens, another large fire is raging out of control around the coastal town of Karistos.
A violent fire devastates the tourist island of Rhodes, in the southeast of the Aegean Sea, and caused the evacuation of more than 32,000 tourists this Saturday, “the largest operation [deste tipo] ever held in Greece”, according to the country’s authorities.
Although the fire seemed under control on Monday morning, strong winds reignited the flames that currently threaten the town of Asklipío, in the south of the island.
Some 270 firefighters are operating in Rhodes with 55 vehicles, four planes and three helicopters. The fire has already burned thousands of hectares of virgin forest, as well as houses and some hotels on the island.
The national meteorological agency (EMY) indicated on Monday that the heat wave will increase on Tuesday and especially on Wednesday, when the temperature will reach 44 degrees Celsius.
For this Wednesday afternoon, “electrical storms are expected in the center and west of the country, before a drop of 6 to 8 degrees Celsius,” according to EMY.
On Monday, over the island of Rhodes, the sky was covered in thick smoke and the hills covered with charred vegetation, according to images by an image reporter for the AFP news agency.
The European Union (EU) has already dispatched four Canadair firefighting aircraft from France and Italy, along with three firefighting teams from Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
This means a total of 220 firefighters and 65 vehicles. In addition, three ground firefighting teams from Romania, Bulgaria and Malta were already operating in Greece as part of the EU Civil Protection’s forest fire season preparation plan.
The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been “in contact with 19 Portuguese” in Greece, after the fires that are affecting this country, and which have already forced the authorities to carry out operations to evacuate people.
“The Embassy of Portugal in Athens is monitoring the situation of the forest fires in Greece and is providing all the necessary support to the Portuguese who are in the country and in particular on the island of Rhodes, whether they are those who have contacted the embassy, those who have contacted the residents or those who are registered in that consular section,” read a statement sent to Lusa on Monday.
Source: TSF
