The blaze continues to consume villages and lands. The island of Euboea, the largest in Greece, remains in flames Sunday August 8, the twelfth day of the disaster that hits Greece. “From what we can see, the fire is not close to being under control”, said the mayor of Mantoudi, a municipality in Evia, on Skai TV.
This tongue of land wedged between Attica and the Aegean offered, Sunday, an apocalyptic panorama. Along the roads, residents sprayed their land with water, while the flames engulfed the wooded areas. On the other hand, at the gates of Athens, the disaster which destroyed dozens of homes, factories and businesses was under control on Sunday, Greek firefighters said.
With temperatures of over 40 degrees, Greece, but also Turkey, is going through an exceptional heatwave; the worst for the Greeks in over thirty years, according to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The fires, which broke out there in the dozens, have left eight dead in Turkey, two dead and three seriously injured in Greece.
While most of the fires were brought under control in Turkey on Sunday, firefighters are still fighting the flames on both sides of the Aegean Sea: in the Turkish region of Mugla, in the southwest of the country, and on the peninsula. Greek Peloponnese, 300 kilometers west of Athens.
” The situation is critical “
The first concern of Greek firefighters remains, Sunday, Euboea, a mountainous island covered with pines which traditionally attracts Greek and foreign tourists. “We have experienced fires, but this situation is unheard of”, laments Nikos Papaioannou, a resident of Gouves, on the island.
Despite the rugged terrain, nearly 500 firefighters continue their fierce fight against the fire in the north of the island, which woke up on Sunday shrouded in a thick cloud of smoke and a rain of ash. Among them are some 200 firefighters from Ukraine and Romania, reinforced by seven water bomber planes and helicopters, according to the Greek fire services.
Corn “The forces are not sufficient”, estimated Giorgos Kelaïtzidis, vice-governor of Euboea. “The situation is critical at the moment”. According to him, at least 35,000 hectares and hundreds of houses have burned down. “We are fighting a titanic fight, but it will take a long time to rebuild”, he added.
56,000 hectares devastated
The main front of the fire was estimated at 30 kilometers wide on Saturday by authorities. “The forehead is too big. We are trying to save the village, but the means are insufficient “, lamented Nikos Papaioannou. ” It’s dramatic. We will all end up in the sea. “
Some 2,000 islanders have been evacuated and relocated to hotels. Ferries and military ships remain on alert in the event of further evacuations by sea, while 350 additional residents were recovered from a beach in Pefki on Sunday, according to the coast guard.
As the flames moved towards the town of Istiaia on Sunday morning, devouring homes and pine forests, Iraklis, a resident, estimated on Open TV that “40,000 people will live like living dead in the next few years because of the destruction of the region”.
In the Peloponnese, the main fronts in the regions of Mani, Ilia and Messinia, where several villages were evacuated on Saturday, are still active on Sunday. More than 56,000 hectares have been devastated in the past ten days in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. Some 1,700 hectares had burned on average over the same period between 2008 and 2020.