Authorities have asked residents of the port city of Alexandroupolis to stay home. “We have a difficult night in prospect and gusts of wind of 7-8 on the Beaufort scale”, ranging from 0 to 12, argued a spokesperson for the firefighters to the Skai TV channel.
Houses burned in the morning in the villages of Aetohori and Pefkax according to the firefighters quoted by the Athens News agency. The fire is near the villages of Agnantia and Anthia and is moving north towards Alexandroupolis airport, according to firefighters.
A huge emergency device put in place
Airport authorities are on alert because of the thick smoke which is causing visibility problems, according to the same source. Three coastguard vessels assisted by private vessels are also on alert in the port of Alexandroupolis, according to authorities. And three additional coastguard ships are heading to the area, they said.
A total of 31 fire engines, nine fire brigades on foot, 14 planes and 4 helicopters, supported on the ground by volunteers, are fighting the fire in this area, according to the authorities.
In Greece, in the middle of a heat wave, a fire, started on July 18 and fanned by strong winds, ravaged in ten days nearly 17,770 hectares in the south of Rhodes, a very touristic island in the Aegean Sea (south-east).
About 20,000 people, mostly tourists, had to be evacuated. The country experienced the biggest heat wave for a month of July at the end of July with temperatures of more than 40°C in many places, according to the National Observatory of Athens.
Multiple fires then broke out, in particular on another very touristic island, Corfu (north-west) from where some 2,500 people had to be evacuated.