For the first time since the fire began, the Greek island has received help from the air – much too late, according to some residents. Greece’s prime minister justifies himself: people have prioritized human lives.
Athens / Rome / Mugla – For the first time since the forest fires on the Greek island of Evia at the beginning of the week, massive air raids were flown against the flames there on Sunday.
In the northern part of the island, many square kilometers of forest are in flames, from Saturday to Sunday the residents fought against walls of fire up to seven kilometers long. The bitterness among the people is great because the fire fighting work from the air had concentrated on the north of Athens in the past few days. “They left us on fire,” a man told Skai TV.
You had no other choice, however, it is said by the rescue workers. “We couldn’t be everywhere. Just imagine that the flames in northern Athens had spread to densely populated areas, ”one firefighter was quoted as saying.
Premier: Life has priority over forest
The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had also repeatedly emphasized in the past few days that human lives had priority over property and forests. Around four million people live in the greater Athens area, Euboea has around 220,000 inhabitants. The area currently affected by the fire consists mainly of forest.
Nevertheless, thousands of people have now been evacuated from the localities there. Ferries came again on Sunday to pick up residents from the shore because the flames had cut off the land route. Some of the clouds of smoke stretch as far as Athens, 100 kilometers away, and can also be clearly seen from the surrounding islands – just like the glow of the fire at night.
The Greek civil defense chief Nikos Chardalias recently spoke of two major fire fronts on Euboea and an extremely difficult situation across the country. Only in the north of Athens did the situation seem to have eased somewhat recently. However, the emergency services are on high alert because new fires keep breaking up, said Chardalias. In addition to the fire brigade, the military is also deployed there to prevent new major fires.
International aid
Helpers from abroad are also increasingly reaching Greece. Two helicopters and their crew arrived from Egypt on Saturday evening. Aid has also been pledged from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Qatar and Kuwait. Germany wants to send 200 fire fighters and emergency services from the technical relief organization; On Sunday morning, among others, almost 60 helpers from North Rhine-Westphalia made their way to Athens.
The help is urgently needed, the emergency services and the residents of the affected regions are at the end of their tether after more than a week of continuous work. Increasingly, volunteers from other parts of the country are making their way to the crisis areas, for example in Turkey, where, according to the disaster control authority Afad, thousands travel on their own to the fire areas to support the fight against the flames.
Italy also affected
The fire brigade is also in constant use in Italy. She moved more than 180 times on Saturday evening in Sicily alone because of forest fires. The popular holiday island was hardest hit. The rescuers also had more than 100 missions in Calabria in the extreme south of Italy and in Apulia on the Adriatic Sea. In Calabria, the flames blazed in a national park, among other places. The fire brigade also reported two fatalities in the region who were killed in the forest fires. dpa
