The fight against the fire continues in Turkey and Greece. While the rescue workers are overloaded, Germany sends help – also from Hesse.
Athens / Antalya – The fire continues to rage in Greece and Turkey. According to a report by the Greek state broadcaster ERT, initial estimates show that 60,000 hectares were burned in the fires in Greece, and the fires continue to rage uncontrollably, especially on the Peloponnese peninsula and the island of Evia. The Greek capital is currently offering a single ray of hope: In the north of Athens, the fires were partially contained on Saturday (07.08.2021), the situation was “a little better,” said Nikos Peppas, Vice-Governor of the Attica region, to the TV station Skai.
“Last night was really hell, a nightmare. We have made tremendous efforts to ensure that the fire does not spread to inhabited areas, ”said Peppas about the fire on Friday night (August 6th, 2021). On the island of Evia, the coast guard brought hundreds of people to safety with boats. Fanis Spanos, Governor of Central Greece, appealed on Facebook: “We finally want a serious number of fire-fighting planes, which we have been demanding since day one! And more fire engines! ”Help is urgently needed, otherwise the fire would“ really spread everywhere ”.
Fires in Greece and Turkey: Erdoğan accuses opposition of “lying terror”
In Turkey, the fires broke out in numerous provinces at the end of July. As in Greece, tens of thousands of people had to be brought to safety, large areas of forest and fields as well as villages have since fallen victim to the flames. But even if the situation in southern Turkey has calmed down in the meantime, there is growing anger at the government. Even at the beginning of the fires, criticism of the Turkish crisis management was repeatedly voiced.
The fact that the fires in Turkey were partially extinguished is also thanks to the emergency services and the residents of the regions affected. According to a report by rp-online.de, these have been in continuous use for over a week. Therefore, an increasing number of volunteers from other parts of the country are on their way to the Turkish crisis areas. According to the civil protection agency Afad, thousands of Turks are voluntarily supporting the fight against the fire.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismissed the criticism of the opposition CHP in a television interview and accused the Social Democrats of “lying terror”. Many of the mayors in the affected regions who have expressed criticism of the government are provided by the CHP. The government is therefore not responsible for the poor crisis management, said Erdoğan.
Fight against fire: the situation in Turkey calms down – Europe sends aid to Greece
While the situation in Turkey is slowly stabilizing, international aid to fight the catastrophic fires in Greece is growing. On Saturday morning, 23 fire engines from Romania reached the city of Athens – there the reinforcements were received loudly by completely overloaded rescue workers. According to the Greek civil defense, 16 Israeli and 100 Ukrainian firefighters as well as 82 rescue workers and two fire-fighting planes from France are among the helpers. Switzerland also sent three fire-fighting helicopters, Sweden contributed two fire-fighting planes.
On Saturday noon, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the German Press Agency (dpa) said that Germany had also offered help that Greece had now accepted. Opposition parties in the Bundestag had previously criticized the fact that Germany had not yet sent any aid to Greece.
As the Hessian Ministry of the Interior announced in Wiesbaden, a total of 164 emergency services of the Hessian disaster control will be dispatched to Athens and the Attica region on Monday (August 9th, 2021). Ten all-terrain tank fire engines are also to be delivered from Hessen. In addition, disaster relief workers from Bonn and forces from the Technical Relief Organization (THW) are expected in Greece. The federal government bears the costs of the operation, while the European Union bears the transport costs. (Nail Akkoyun) * hna.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
Despite the difficult situation and the corona pandemic, Greece remains a popular holiday destination *. Tourists would have to pay attention to a few things. Even when traveling to Turkey, vacationers * have to watch out for certain things.
Heading image: © Lefteris Partsalis / dpa
