Chloé Lagadou with AFP / Photo credits: AYHAN MEHMET / ANADOLU AGENCY / ANADOLU AGENCY VIA AFP
A sky reddened by flames, devastated forests, houses reduced to ashes, Greece is on fire. The country is suffering a new wave of fires after those of July and since Monday twenty people, including 18 presumed migrants, have lost their lives. To the northwest of Athens, the authorities ordered the evacuation of the Ano Liosia district, populated by some 25,000 people, after houses burned in the neighboring district of Fyli, according to an AFP journalist.
An “unprecedented” situation
“The situation is unprecedented, the weather conditions are extreme,” firefighter spokesman Yiannis Artopios said on public television. He added that the fires on Tuesday “have grown to enormous proportions in a short time”.
Clouds of smoke even travel several hundred kilometers. And faced with this apocalyptic setting, residents like Hélène are distraught. “There is fire everywhere in Greece. Yesterday we had no sun because all the fog came from the wind,” she says.
Uncontrollable fires
Out of control fires exacerbated by extreme weather conditions. Hélène lives on an island more than 300 kilometers from the fires. However, the anxiety is there. The whole country is worried. “Of course I’m scared. I have a house, I have my children, I have my family, I have friends, so we’re always scared,” she says.
“Greece is going through a new episode of devastation of its vegetation and the rapid assistance of the EU is vital,” said Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management, in a press release. Faced with this new wave of fires, some 120 firefighters from Cyprus, Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany and Serbia come to lend a hand to the firefighters in Greece.