Experts warn that the forest fires in the heat-plagued south have not yet peaked. As if to prove it, the next fire is escalating north of Athens – the emergency services are overwhelmed.
Athens / Istanbul – Just 25 kilometers north of Athens city center, another huge forest fire broke out on Thursday afternoon. TV pictures showed a kilometer-long wall of flames and smoke as high as a house.
Fire-fighting planes and helicopters were in action, but had to stop working when it got dark. As a precaution, the electricity company switched off a large distributor in the region. The company announced that it would locally interrupt the electricity in Athens on Thursday evening in order to be able to maintain the overall supply.
Not only in Greece, but also in Turkey, large fires continue to run out of control. Firefighters, rescue workers, the military and volunteers are fighting desperately against the fires. The Turkish Forest Service reported 180 fires on Thursday, 12 of which are not yet under control.
Dozens of new fires in Greece
In Greece, 92 forest fires spread across the country within 24 hours. According to this, a good three new fires break out every hour in the eastern Mediterranean region, often in remote regions, but also in the vicinity of settlements and people who have to flee headlong from the flames.
North of Athens, the highway between the capital and Thessaloniki was closed on Thursday evening; a short time later the flames jumped over to the other side of the road. The village of Krioneri was evacuated, as was a refugee camp. There were also several new sources of fire on the second largest Greek island of Evia, which is heavily forested. Church bells rang the alarm, residents fled or tried to cut aisles with tractors and chainsaws to keep the flames from moving.
The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that he would use more of the military. The soldiers should follow the situation from the air with drones and discover new sources of fire in good time. They are also supposed to support the fire brigade with excavators and other heavy equipment and transport water to the sources of the fire in tankers.
Turkey cannot control fire
In Turkey, the fires raged on in the tourist regions on the Mediterranean Sea. For days, the rescue workers have not been able to get major fires in the provinces of Antalya and Mugla under control. Almost 12,000 houses and more than 36,000 people were evacuated in Mugla alone, spokesmen for local authorities said. According to official information, 2000 houses have been damaged so far, at least eight people have died. Tourists were sometimes taken from holiday resorts by water.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s office is investigating a campaign on social media. Under the hashtag #HelpTurkey, users asked for international help in the fight against the fire. Since the fires started last week, criticism of the equipment of the emergency services has been raised again and again. The state news agency Anadolu reported that it is now being investigated, among other things, for “generating worry, fear and panic” in the population and inciting the people to hatred and enmity.
Fighting fires also in Italy and Bulgaria
In Italy, the emergency services also continued to fight the flames. Sicily and Calabria, among others, were affected. Fire-fighting planes are in use in the provinces of Messina and Palermo, the fire brigade announced on Twitter. Environment Minister Roberto Cingolani said that around 70 percent of the fires were caused by human misconduct. Then there are the consequences of climate change.
In Bulgaria, the second highest alert level for 24 of the 28 regions was declared on Thursday – also in the capital Sofia with around 1.5 million inhabitants. The two major fires in the south of the Balkans were initially brought under control, as reported by the Bulgarian media. However, two forest workers were killed and another was badly burned. dpa
