“An explosion of fire. This is the term used by the spokesperson for the fire brigade, Yannis Artopoios, on the public channel ERT, to describe the fires around Athens which took place on the night of Wednesday August 23 to Thursday August 24. For the sixth day in a row, firefighters continue to fight deadly fires in Greece. The front line of operations is in an area that mixes forest and urban fabric, about twenty kilometers north of the capital, said Mr. Artopios.
At the gates of the Greek capital, the devastating flames fanned by high temperatures and strong winds – phenomena which will persist until Friday, according to meteorologists – continue to progress on the foothills of Mount Parnes, where the largest forest is located. close to the Greek capital. They have been threatening for two days an important national park which is home to many species of birds, Kefalonia firs, Aleppo pines and oaks, according to firefighters. These fires also led to evacuations of residential areas.
“The whole country burned down”
Many express anger and bitterness, as major fires ravage Greece for the second time in a month after those on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Euboea, and in the Athens region. At the end of July, violent fires had been fanned by a long wave of heat wave, with temperatures having exceeded 45 ° C in places.
“The state really needs to toughen up the penalties [in the event of arson], this can’t continue, the whole country has burned down,” added Nikos Xagoraris, deputy mayor of the neighboring town of Acharnes, located north of the city. ‘Athens, on the public channel ERT, before bursting into tears.
Within days, the fires burned more than 60,000 hectares in northern Greece and 5,000 hectares west of Athens, according to estimates by the National Forest Fire Observatory. On Wednesday evening, Athenians residing in certain central districts could see from their balconies or windows flames and a blaze on the wooded hills near the capital.
The most important front was in the north of the country, where a huge fire, which started on Saturday near the port city of Alexandroupoli, now forms a unified front of more than 15 kilometers. The bodies of 19 people, suspected migrants, including two children, were found in the area this week.
A thousand-year-old monastery escapes the flames
A third major fire occurred in Boeotia, north of Athens, where a thousand-year-old Byzantine monastery, Osios Loukas, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, narrowly escaped destruction on Wednesday.
The thermometer is expected to show up to 38°C this Thursday in parts of the country. Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias warned on Wednesday that the country was going through the worst summer of fires since the introduction of fire risk maps in 2009. “This is an unprecedented situation,” said- he assured.
The Greek government, which blames these fires on climate change, is accused of not doing enough to protect biodiversity and of not taking action to prevent the fires.
