Athens:
Hundreds of Greek firefighters were battling a raging blaze on Monday that has killed at least 20 people over the past 10 days in what is Europe’s deadliest wildfire so far this summer, as a record-setting heatwave The fire has spread across the continent.
The fire, which started near the city of Alexandroupolis, has spread uncontrollably in the Evros region of northeastern Greece due to stormy winds and high temperatures. All but one of the victims killed so far were irregular migrants hiding in the forest.
“This is the definition of what we call a megafire,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told a regular briefing.
The EU-backed Copernicus Climate Change Service said the Averos fire had burnt more than 77,000 hectares of land, making it one of the biggest fires on European soil in years.
ALSO READ: Canada wildfires: All 20,000 Yellowknife residents being evacuated
“To be safe, we tried to wet the ground a little with a hose, but the water evaporated in no time,” says Michaelis Tsoulakis, a 40-year-old beekeeper who lost 350 beehives in the village of Kirki in the Evros region. “It was not possible to save anything.”
Marinakis said the country’s Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection and other senior government ministers had visited the area to assess the damage.
MPs were expected to discuss the impact of the devastating fire and the state’s preparedness in Parliament on Thursday. Fire forces from Cyprus, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria and Slovakia have been assisting Greece’s efforts to extinguish the blaze in recent weeks.
View of the burnt forest after a wildfire near the village of Avantas in the Evros region of Greece, August 28, 2023. Photo: Reuters
Meanwhile, the fire brigade said a wildfire that broke out last Tuesday on the outskirts of Athens has subsided.
Hundreds have been forced to flee their homes in Greece’s second major fire this summer as hundreds of wildfires rage across the country.
In July, about 20,000 foreign tourists were evacuated from the island of Rhodes, where wildfires had gutted resorts and hotels.
