Hundreds of tourists and residents were evacuated to the Greek island of Lesbos where a forest fire continued, Saturday evening July 23, to threaten the popular seaside resort of Vatera. The fire caused thick clouds of smoke, obscuring the sun, while the flames raged a few meters from the dwellings, forcing residents to flee while others tried to protect their homes.
Greece is experiencing its first day of a heat wave expected to last ten days and temperatures of 42C are expected in some areas, raising fears of more fires. According to Greek firefighters, there were 53 fire starts in 24 hours.
The fire near Vatera broke out in the middle of the morning and spread to this seaside village and the neighboring town of Vrisa. In Vatera, whose city hall of the agglomeration ordered the preventive evacuation in the morning, 450 people left two hotels and 92 houses according to the police, after nine people were evacuated from a beach, including five foreign nationals.
Several cars and small boats participated in the operation, according to the town hall. At least two houses were ravaged by the flames, according to state television ERT. Firefighters remained deployed on Saturday evening.
An “exceptionally difficult” fire
Greek firefighters also continued to fight for the third consecutive day against a violent fire in the Dadia National Park, the largest Natura 2000 site in Greece, known for its colony of vultures, in the region of Evros, in the north- is. Fire, “exceptionally difficult”estimated the firefighters, was approaching the village of Dadia in the early evening, ERT said.
A total of 320 firefighters and 68 devices have been deployed since Friday evening, including a very large number of volunteer firefighters, supported by six water bomber helicopters and nine other helicopters. Dense smoke and lack of wind, combined with high humidity overnight from Friday to Saturday, however, hampered aerial firefighting work.
A wildfire in mountains near Athens on Wednesday damaged homes and forced several hundred people to flee, a few miles from the coastal village of Mati, scene in 2018 of Greece’s worst wildfire disaster. . There had been 102 deaths. A ceremony of remembrance was also organized on Saturday in Mati. In addition, in the Peloponnese on Saturday, a new fire broke out near Koroni and the neighboring village of Chrysokelaria had to be evacuated in the early evening.
The proliferation of extreme weather events is a direct consequence of global warming according to scientists, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing in intensity, duration and frequency. Last year, a heat wave and forest fires destroyed 103,000 hectares and killed three people in Greece.