Hundreds of firefighters were battling the flames on Sunday August 27 in northeastern Greece where deadly fires are raging for the ninth consecutive day. The largest outbreak, which presents a unified front, continues to devastate the northern region of Evros, near the port town of Alexandroupoli and the Turkish border, according to firefighters.
Residents of the areas of Lefkimmi, in Evros, and Kassitera, in the neighboring Rhodopes region, were ordered to evacuate their homes on Sunday by a message from Civil Protection.
Evros Deputy Regional Governor Dimitris Petrovic spoke on public broadcaster ERT of a “very difficult situation” that has caused untold destruction. “We have issued a new call for capacity building,” he added. “Because from Monday, the winds are changing, the threat is increasing and we don’t know how and if we will be able to stop the advance of the front of the fire. »
The fire broke out on Saturday August 19, killing nineteen suspected migrants, including two children.
120,000 hectares burned
The fire is ravaging in particular the protected forest of Dadia, a national park which is an important habitat or wintering area for birds of prey. In the north of Athens, a fire continues to ravage the vegetation on Mount Parnes, one of the green lungs of the Greek capital.
On the island of Andros, in the Cyclades archipelago, firefighters have also been fighting since Saturday after a fire started, no doubt caused by lightning, according to firefighters.
In 2023, the fires, which the government blames on climate change, burned more than 120,000 hectares in the country, according to estimates by the National Observatory – three times the annual average since 2006, for its part noted the European Forest Fire Observatory.
