The flames engulfed part of Greece for the fifth day in a row without interruption: over the past 24 hours, the authorities extinguished more than 400 fires across the country. Greece is facing the worst heat wave in decades with temperatures above 40 ° C, prompting the Greek prime minister to say he has turned the country into a powder keg. Another person died, resulting in two deaths.
The most uncontrolled fronts of fire are in the northern outskirts of Athens, on the island of Evia and in the Peloponnese region, including Mani, Messinia and Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games. More than 700 firefighters, including reinforcements from Cyprus, France and Israel, are fighting the flames using about 20 aircraft. Several countries are expected to send more resources, including the United States.
One person died on Friday after electric shockwithout resisting injury. The second fatal victim was found in a factory near a fire. It was the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, Konstantinos Michalos. Another 20 people were injured.
In the period from Friday evening to Saturday morning, another village was affected: a strong wind raised flames in Frakomakedones, on the outskirts of Athens, and several houses were burned. The place was evacuated. “[É] even awful, ”said local resident Thanasis Kaloudis. “All Greece burned down.”
In Evia, the second largest island in Greece, about 100 kilometers from Athens, fires spread from one end of the island, near the Gulf of Evia, to the other end of the Aegean Sea. Late Friday afternoon, hundreds of people, including elderly residents, fled by boat from the village of Limni when flames erupted on the shore and the sky turned an apocalyptic red.
To the north of Athens, the air was heavy with smoke from the flames, and a thin layer of ash covered the ground. “We’re talking about an apocalypse, I don’t know how to describe it,” he told ERT radio station Sotiris Danikas, who is responsible for the coastal guard on the island.
On Saturday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the summer “horrific”, adding that the government’s priority “was primarily to protect human lives.” The government intends to compensate people affected by the fires and should designate the burned-out areas as reforestation areas, Mitsotakis promised.
