Greece, who is fighting for several fires, faces “a very difficult day” due to the violent winding gusts, he warned the spokesman for Firefighters Vassilis Vathrakoyannis this Wednesday, August 13.
Since last week, Greece has been prey to winds of more than 80 km/hy fires that killed three on Friday, including two Vietnamese tourists. According to the forecasts of the EMY National Meteorological Service, temperatures should approach Wednesday 40 ° C in certain regions of western Greece, especially in western Peloponnese.
“The disaster is very big”
The fire fronts that concern the authorities are located on the island of Zante, in the Ionian Sea (west), on the island of Chios, in the northeast of the Aegean Sea, in Preveza, in the west of the country, as well as in the department of Achaïa in the northwest of the Peloponnese, where about twenty peoples were evacuated on Tuesday.
On the island of Zante, around 1,500 hectares of forests and fields were destroyed by flames, while in the department of Achaiaa, “the catastrophe is very large,” said the Greek News Agency Ana, the mayor of the west of Achaia, Grigoris Alexopoulos.
Near the port of Patras, the third city of the country, “a health center had to be evacuated on Tuesday, a break with a hundred burned cars and several houses were damaged,” said an AFP journalist. “The situation on this front is now better, but a new fire near the archaeological site of Vouteni again threatens forest areas and houses and the area is covered with a thick cloud of smoke,” he says.
Firefighters mobilized on two fronts
On the island of the Chios, the Firefighters remained mobilized on two fronts on Wednesday, while the island was already affected in June by a fire that had devastated more than 4,000 hectares. “Fifteen firefighters were transported to the hospital and needed first aid tonight when they were mobilized in the fires in Achaia, Press and Chios,” said Vathrakoyannis.
Since Wednesday at dawn, 33 airplanes and 4,850 firefighters have been mobilized on all fronts, he also added. On Tuesday, Greece asked the European mechanism to obtain four additional water bombers, the fire spokesman announced Tuesday.
“Certainly are the most difficult 24 hours of the period of fighting fires,” said the president of the Fire Official Union, Kostas Tsigas in ET. “Just yesterday, 82 fires broke out, a very high number that, combined with strong winds, drought and high temperatures, created huge difficulties,” he also continued. More than 20,000 hectares have been destroyed by flames since June in Greece.
Source: BFM TV
