Fire fronts across Greece receded on Sunday after hundreds of firefighters gave overnight battles with the flames under difficult weather conditions to save human lives, houses, livestock, crops, and nature, as many areas were evacuated throughout Saturday.
Firefighting aircraft and helicopters have been assisting ground forces in most areas. Italy has contributed two Canadair aircraft to the firefighting efforts, AMNA reports.
According to Fire Service spokesperson, Fire Colonel Vassilis Vathrakogiannis, Sunday is also expected to be difficult, with a very high fire risk across almost the entire country due to a prolonged heatwave.
“We strongly urge people to avoid using heat-generating tools. In the event of a fire outbreak, for everyone’s safety, it is mandatory to follow the instructions of the competent authorities,” Vathrakogiannis advised during an emergency media briefing.
Active fronts and hotspots continue to burn on Sunday
Hotspots kept burning on Sunday morning in Evia, Chania, Lakonia, and Kryoneri-Drosopigi, a northern suburb in Athens metropolitan area, where many houses burned to ashes.
There were still active fronts on the island of Kythera and in Polythea, Messinia, both southern Greece, the Fire Service trying to contain them.
New evacuation alerts were activated in Kythera on Sunday morning. The island’s mayor had collapsed at the fire front the previous night and was transferred by air to hospital in Athens.
Thousands of livestock animals burned on Saturday inside their farms in Evia, including a pig farm unit owned by the island’s Deputy Governor, George Kelaiditis.
“It was an absolute disaster. We have suffered great damage, which we still cannot calculate. We are trying to save whatever animals are left,” he told AMNA.
Residents of Evia were disappointed that not enough firefighting aircraft had aided the ground forces, despite Governor Fanis Spanos’s repeated pleas. The island had previously suffered catastrophic fires in the north in 2021.
Titanic battle with fires on multiple fronts in Greece
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday vowed to support citizens who saw their properties vanish in the flames.
“The state mechanism was called upon to wage a titanic battle, simultaneously confronting dozens of fires across the country,” Mitsotakis commented in his weekly review. He thanked the fire service, volunteer firefighters, civil protection volunteers, the police, the coast guard, the national ambulance service, the armed forces, and local authorities “for the monumental effort they have made since yesterday,” highlighting that timely evacuations had effectively saved human lives.
“Those who saw their properties destroyed by the fury of the fire should know that the State will stand by them – swiftly, with meaningful assistance, and with every available means of recovery,” the Greek Premier concluded.
