The people in Turkey, Greece and Italy are fighting desperately against ever new sources of fire. In Greece, meteorologists agree: it will get worse.
Athens / Istanbul / Rome – The devastating fires in the Mediterranean area never end even after a week. Greek meteorologists and the government in Athens are now warning that the peak may not have been reached yet.
The main fear is that strong winds will arise in the next few days – they could make fighting the flames almost impossible and keep the fire going. The temperatures should drop slightly at the weekend, but then again reach more than 40 degrees.
The situation in Turkey is also dramatic: there the forestry office informed on Thursday via Twitter that 180 fires had broken out in the meantime, 15 of which had not yet been brought under control. Meanwhile, the Turkish General Prosecutor’s Office has started an investigation into a campaign on social media.
Call for help on Twitter
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 on Thursday that the state news agency Anadolu is now being investigated, among other things, because of “generating worry, fear and panic” in the population and inciting the people to hate and hostility.
Since Wednesday, the Greek fire brigade has been trying in a tremendous effort to bring the fire around ancient Olympia on the Peloponnese peninsula under control. Most recently, it was possible to contain the fire shortly before the flames could reach the Unesco world heritage site. “The site has been saved for the time being,” said the governor of the West Greece region, Nektarios Farmakis, on state television early in the morning. However, he warned: “The danger is not over.”
Volunteers cut aisles
This is also the case on the island of Evia: there, people are currently fighting several large fires on their own. Volunteers cut aisles to prevent the flames from spreading; Chainsaws, tractors and garden hoses are used. Fire-fighting planes were initially not visible because the pilots cannot be everywhere in view of the many fires across the country. On Wednesday evening, the Greek fire brigade counted 116 fires within 24 hours.
In Italy, the emergency services continued to fight the flames on Thursday. Sicily and Calabria, among others, were affected. Several fire-fighting planes are in use in the provinces of Messina and Palermo, the fire brigade said on Twitter. The second highest alert level still applies in Bulgaria – since Thursday in 24 of the country’s 28 regions. dpa
