International

Greek Wildfires Rampage Forests, Cuts Large Island In Half

Firefighters were fighting through the night to save Istiaia, a town of 7,000, as well as several villages, using bulldozers to open up clear paths in the thick forest.

Three large wildfires spread across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country’s second-largest island, isolating its northern part. The other two wildfires engulfed forested mountainsides and spread through ancient sites, leaving behind massive destruction that one official described as “a biblical catastrophe.”

Firefighters were fighting through the night to save Istiaia, a town of 7,000 in northern Evia, as well as several villages, using bulldozers to open up clear paths in the thick forest.

On Friday night the Evia Island evacuation of about 1,400 people from a seaside village and island beaches were done by boats after the flames cut off other means of escape.

The other dangerous fires were one in Greece’s southern Peloponnese peninsula, near Ancient Olympia and one in Fokida, in the Central Greece Region, north of Athens. The fire in Ancient Olympia moved east, away from the ancient site, threatening villages in a sudden flare-up Saturday afternoon.

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Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters on Saturday night that firefighters hoped to contain the fire by Sunday.

One volunteer firefighter died on Friday and at least 20 people have been treated in hospitals over the last week. On Saturday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the fire department’s headquarters in Athens and expressed his “deep sadness” for the firefighter’s death.

Securing aid for everyone affected by the wildfires will be “my first political priority,” he said, promising that all burnt areas would be reforested. “When this nightmarish summer has passed, we will turn all our attention to repairing the damage as fast as possible, and in restoring our natural environment again,” Mitsotakis said.

 

 

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