A Canadair refueling plane participating in fighting fires on the Greek island of Euboea crashed into the slope of a hill near the town of Platanistós on Tuesday, local firefighters said.
There were two people on the plane and communication with the pilots was lost, according to various media. So far there is no information about fatalities from the accident.
Public television ERT recorded and broadcast footage of the plane crashing after it threw water on a fire front followed by a massive explosion.
Another image, broadcast by the private television Open, shows the wreckage of the plane at the scene of the accident surrounded by intense smoke.
Several teams of firefighters and a helicopter went to the area.
For three days now, firefighters have been trying to bring a huge blaze on the island of Euboea, in central Greece, under control.
As of this Tuesday, another heat wave will begin to hit Greece, with maximum temperatures expected to reach 44 degrees Celsius, as fires continue to devastate parts of the Greek islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Euboea.
In Athens, the thermometers are expected to reach 41 degrees Celsius and in the center of the country 44 degrees Celsius, according to the forecast of the Greek National Meteorological Agency (EMY).
These very high temperatures, which appear after a weekend of intense heat, will continue on Wednesday, before a predicted drop of up to 5 degrees Celsius is expected from Thursday, according to the same source.
According to EMY experts, Greece is experiencing one of the longest heat waves in recent years. Without breaking the all-time national record of 48 degrees Celsius, the temperature reached 46.4 degrees Celsius in Gythio on the southern Peloponnese peninsula on Sunday.
On the front lines of the fires, which have been raging in the country for more than a week, firefighters are still at work on the islands of Rhodes, in the Aegean Sea (southeast), Corfu, in the Ionian Sea (northwest) and on Euboea, a large island east of Athens.
These wildfires, fueled by strong winds, have already destroyed thousands of hectares of forest and vegetation, so far without causing any casualties.
In Euboea, Rhodes and Corfu, where unprecedented evacuation operations took place last weekend, hundreds of firefighters, supported by helicopters and planes, are trying to contain the blaze for the eighth consecutive day, firefighters said.
A call from the Greek Civil Defense to evacuate a city was issued overnight from Monday to today on this island near Athens, the northern part of which was devastated by fierce fires two years ago.
A fourth fire front is worrying firefighters near Aigio, a town in western Peloponnese.
Many regions of the country remain “on red alert” today, that is, in “extreme danger” of wildfires as winds of up to 40 kilometers per hour blow in the Aegean Sea.
Source: DN
