Smoke spreads over Mount Parnitha on Friday during a wildfire in the village of Ippokratios Politia, about 34 kilometers north of Athens. Thousands of people fled out of control forest fires in Greece and Turkey on Friday, including a major fire north of the Greek capital, Athens. Lefteris Pitarakis / AP Hide caption
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Lefteris Pitarakis / AP
Smoke spreads over Mount Parnitha on Friday during a wildfire in the village of Ippokratios Politia, about 34 kilometers north of Athens. Thousands of people fled out of control forest fires in Greece and Turkey on Friday, including a major fire north of the Greek capital, Athens.
Lefteris Pitarakis / AP
THRAKOMAKEDONES, Greece – Forest fires raged through some of Greece’s last remaining forests for another day on Saturday, spreading into more inhabited areas after numerous homes, shops and farms burned down during the country’s worst heat wave in three decades.
One of the massive fires pulled up the slopes of Mount Parnitha, a national park north of Athens and one of the last great forests near the Greek capital. The fire spread suffocating clouds of smoke over the capital region, where the authorities had set up a hotline for residents with breathing problems. All day long, the firefighters struggled to contain the constant flare-ups.
Thousands of residents and vacationers in areas where fire broke out days ago have fled by land and sea as firefighters and volunteers fought through the night.
In apocalyptic scenes, ferries evacuated 1,153 people overnight and into Saturday morning from a coastal village and the beaches on Evia, an island with rugged, wooded mountains popular with holidaymakers and campers, after approaching flames cut off other escape routes. People clutched babies and helped elderly people cross a pebble beach to get to the small ferries. Behind them, towering flames and smoke covered the wooded hills.
People board a ferry during an evacuation from Kochyli Beach when wildfire approaches near the village of Limni on the island of Evia on Friday. Thodoris Nikolaou / AP hide caption
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Thodoris Nikolaou / AP
People board a ferry during an evacuation from Kochyli Beach when wildfire approaches near the village of Limni on the island of Evia on Friday.
Thodoris Nikolaou / AP
The scale of the forest fires in Greece was staggering, with more than 100 breaking out across the country in the last few days. Most were quickly tamed, but some quickly burned out of control, devoured houses and caused immeasurable ecological damage.
In the south, in the Mani region of the Peloponnese, where a major fire had broken out, a local official estimated that about 70% of their area had been destroyed.
“It’s a biblical disaster. We’re talking about three-quarters of the community,” said East Mani’s deputy mayor, Drakoulakou, to state broadcaster ERT, calling for more water-dripping planes.
Other local officials and residents in southern Greece, near Athens and on Evia also called for more fire-fighting help, especially air support, on television.
The Greek government asked for support for its scarce resources through the European Union’s emergency aid system. Firefighters and planes have arrived from France, Ukraine, Cyprus, Croatia, Sweden and Israel, with others arriving from Romania and Switzerland on Saturday.
Egypt said on Saturday it was sending two helicopters to Greece while 36 Czech firefighters with 15 vehicles were expected early Monday.
A man watches the flames as wildfire approaches Kochyli Beach near the village of Limni on Evia Island, about 160 miles north of Athens, Greece, late Friday. Forest fires raged uncontrollably through Greece and Turkey for another day on Friday, forcing thousands to flee by land and sea. Thodoris Nikolaou / AP hide caption
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Thodoris Nikolaou / AP
A man watches the flames as wildfire approaches Kochyli Beach near the village of Limni on Evia Island, about 160 miles north of Athens, Greece, late Friday. Forest fires raged uncontrollably through Greece and Turkey for another day on Friday, forcing thousands to flee by land and sea.
Thodoris Nikolaou / AP
Fires, which have been described as the worst in decades, also raged across sections of Turkey’s neighboring south coast in the past 10 days, killing eight people. The top Turkish forest official said 217 fires had been brought under control in more than half of the country’s provinces since July 28, while firefighters continued to work on Saturday to tame six fires in two provinces.
In Greece on Friday, a fire that broke out north of Athens killed a volunteer firefighter. Nationwide, at least 20 people were injured in the flames.
Greek civil protection chief Nikos Hardalias said Friday evening that firefighters were exposed to “exceptionally dangerous, unprecedented conditions” while fighting 154 forest fires this week, 64 of which burned into the night.
“In the last few days we have faced an unprecedented situation in our country in the intensity and spread of forest fires and new outbreaks everywhere (Greece),” he said. “I want to assure you that all available forces will take part in the fight.”
The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the fire brigade headquarters in Athens on Saturday morning and expressed his “deep sorrow over what happened”.
He said that ensuring aid to all those affected by the forest fires was “my first political priority”. He also promised to declare all burned areas to be reforestation zones.
“With great effort and with the participation of society, when this nightmarish summer is over, we will turn our full attention to repairing the damage and restoring our natural environment as soon as possible,” said Mitsotakis.
Greece has been baked in the longest heat wave in 30 years, with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). Temperatures eased on Friday, but the wind picked up, further exacerbating the situation.
A burned building can be seen in the village of Limni on the Greek island of Evia on Saturday. Forest fires raged through vast swathes of the last remaining forests in Greece for another day on Saturday, encroaching on inhabited areas and burning dozens of homes, businesses and farmland. Thodoris Nikolaou / AP hide caption
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Thodoris Nikolaou / AP
A burned building can be seen in the village of Limni on the Greek island of Evia on Saturday. Forest fires raged through vast swaths of the last remaining forests in Greece for another day on Saturday, encroaching on inhabited areas and burning dozens of homes, businesses and farmland.
Thodoris Nikolaou / AP
Evacuation orders for villages and neighborhoods were constant, pushing alarms to cellphones in the affected areas while police and firefighters went door to door asking people to leave homes in the path of the flames.
On Friday, changing winds and new flame points meant that the flames north of Athens and Euboea kept changing direction and, in some cases, returning to fire areas and houses that had narrowly escaped destruction earlier in the week.
Authorities asked Athens residents to wear masks outdoors and close the windows in their homes because of the thick smoke that haunts the capital. They also set up the free information for anxious callers for information about breathing difficulties.
The causes of the fires are being investigated. Hardalias said three people were arrested on Friday – in the greater Athens area, central and southern Greece – on suspicion of deliberately starting fires in two cases. Police said the suspect arrested in northern Athens allegedly lit fires in three different locations in the area devastated by the great fire that first broke out on Tuesday.
Greek and European officials have also blamed climate change for a large number of summer fires in southern Europe, from southern Italy to the Balkans, Greece and Turkey.
Most of the fires on Saturday appeared to be under control in Turkey’s coastal province of Mugla. Municipalities in Marmaris and wider Mugla Province said cooling operations were underway in areas where fires have been controlled. The forest minister said the fires in the Milas area were continuing.
Officials from the city of Antalya, on the Turkish Mediterranean, said a fire had raged on the Eynif Plain, where teams of wild horses live. The fires in Manavgat, where fires raged for days, are said to be under control.
Massive fires have also been burning for weeks in Siberia in northern Russia, while hot, bone-dry, gusty weather has fueled devastating forest fires in California as well.
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