Greece is experiencing its first day of a heat wave planned to last ten days. Temperatures of 42 ° C are expected in certain regions, raising fears of other fires.
Le Monde with AFP
Hundreds of tourists and inhabitants were evacuated to the Greek island of Lesbos where a forest fire continued, on Saturday July 23, to threaten the popular seaside resort of Vatera. The fire caused thick clouds of smoke, hiding the sun, while the flames raged a few meters from the dwellings, forcing residents to flee while others were trying to protect their houses.
Greece is experiencing its first day of a heat wave planned to last ten days and temperatures of 42 ° C are expected in certain regions, raising fears of other fires. According to the Greek firefighters, there were 53 fire starts in 24 hours.
The fire near Vatera broke out in the middle of the morning and spread to this seaside village and the neighboring town of Vrisa. In Vatera, whose town hall of the agglomeration ordered preventive evacuation in the morning, 450 people left two hotels and 92 houses according to the police, after nine people were evacuated from a beach, including five foreign nationals.
Several coaches and small boats participated in the operation, according to the town hall. At least two houses were ravaged by flames, according to state television ERT. The firefighters remained deployed on site on Saturday evening. 2>
an exceptionally difficult “fire
Greek firefighters also continued to fight for the third consecutive day against a violent fire in Dadia National Park, the largest Natura 2,000 site in Greece, known for its vulture colony, in the region of Evros, in the North-east. The fire, “exceptionally difficult”, estimated the firefighters, approached the village of Dadia at the start of the evening, underlined Ert.
In total, 320 firefighters and 68 vehicles have been deployed since Friday evening, including a very large number of volunteer firefighters, supported by six water bomber helicopters and nine other helicopters. The dense smoke and the lack of wind, combined with strong humidity during the night from Friday to Saturday, however embarrassed the work of air control against fire.
Wednesday, a forest fire in mountains near Athens damaged houses and forced several hundred people from, a few kilometers from the coastal village of Mati, theater in 2018 by the worst catastrophe caused by a fire of Forest in Greece. There had been 102 dead. A memory ceremony was also organized on Saturday in Mati. In addition, in the Peloponnese on Saturday, a new fire broke out near Koroni and the neighboring village of Chrysokelaria had to be evacuated in the early evening.
The multiplication of extreme meteorological phenomena is a direct consequence of global warming according to scientists, greenhouse gas emissions increasing both their intensity, their duration and their frequency. Last year, a heat wave and forest fires destroyed 103,000 hectares and caused the death of three people in Greece.