“An old shepherd ran to his sheepfold to save his animals and was found dead, probably intoxicated by the fumes” of the fire, a spokesman for the Greek fire department told AFP. The latter are leading a difficult fight in the region of Boétie, in central Greece, plagued by devastating fires. An evacuation notice has been issued for tourists who were on a nearby beach. Some 60 firefighters assisted by 4 planes intervened on the spot.
Another fire broke out on the island of Euboea where 42 firefighters and 4 planes are fighting the flames. Two more are raging in northeastern Greece in the regions of Rodopi and Kavala, while another has erupted in Aspropyrgos, a town west of Athens. Fires are also raging for the third consecutive day in northeastern Greece, near the port city of Alexandroupolis. Seven firefighters and one volunteer were hospitalized with injuries.
The European Union has announced that it is deploying two Cyprus-based firefighting aircraft and a Romanian firefighting team through the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
“Greece has already experienced by far its worst July since 2008 in terms of forest fires,” said EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic. “The fires are more intense and violent, destroying more area than before,” he added. Civil protection authorities warned on Monday of an “extreme” fire risk in the capital region of Athens and other parts of southern Greece.
“We are facing extreme phenomena and we all have to adapt to this difficult situation,” fire department spokesman Yannis Artopios said in televised statements, calling on the population to follow the authorities’ instructions. Very hot and dry conditions, which increase the risk of fires, will persist in Greece until Friday. A dozen settlements were evacuated over the weekend and civil protection authorities urged residents to stay indoors due to the smoke.
On July 18, a fire fanned by strong winds had ravaged nearly 17,770 hectares in ten days south of Rhodes, a popular tourist island in the southeast of the Aegean Sea. Around 20,000 people, mostly tourists, had to be evacuated. At the end of July, the country experienced its worst heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 40°C in many places, according to the National Observatory of Athens.
