The fight against fires continued in Greece on Friday, for the seventh consecutive day, with a particularly difficult situation in the north of the country but a marked improvement at the gates of Athens.
The largest fire, which presented a unified front of 15 kilometers on Thursday, is raging in the northern region of Evros, near the Greek port city of Alexandroupoli and the Turkish border. The fire started there last Saturday and 19 suspected migrants, including two children, were found dead this week north of Alexandroupoli.
“Unfortunately, Evros is the most active part of all the fronts we are facing at the moment and possibly the most difficult section for today,” fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios said on Friday. state television ERT.
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.
Near Athens, “there is currently no large active front on Mount Parnes,” said Mr. Artopios.
Finally, a third fire was still raging in Boeotia, north of Athens, but conditions had improved.
However, the fire risk is very high for Friday in central Greece and the Athens region.
The authorities have accused arsonists of being behind the multiple fronts of the past few days and have opened investigations which now involve the National Intelligence Service and the Department of Fire Prevention, according to the fire department spokesman.
“We will be able to prove that there is an intervention on these fronts,” he said.
In 2023, the fires, which the government also 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.
08/25/2023 12:03:07 – Athens (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
