Two large forest fires raged on Sunday in Attica, the Athens region, with authorities fearing the worst for this summer in Greece. The country is prey to fires every year but the situation is expected to be even more tense this year, after the mildest winter on record and the earliest heatwave, with temperatures reaching 44°C. On Sunday, some 140 firefighters, 39 vehicles, eight helicopters and nine planes were mobilized to fight the flames in Keratea, around twenty kilometers south of the Greek capital.
Ert TV reported that a 45-year-old man died of cardiac arrest while trying to flee the flames in Stamata, north of Athens, where winds exceeding 70 km/h were recorded. At least four houses there were completely destroyed, according to Ertnews television channel. “The situation is very difficult because strong winds continue to blow, they have not calmed down and there are numerous outbreaks”, told the mayor of Lavreotiki, Dimitris Loukas, to the ANA agency. Dimitris Loukas, however, assured that the neighboring air base was not currently threatened. The day before, a forest fire had already occurred in the same area, before being brought under control.
A major forest fire
North of the capital, another fire broke out in the suburb of Stamata, where residents were asked to evacuate their homes. An industrial area in Ritsona, in the province of Evia, which stretches for nearly 160 km in the Aegean Sea, was also engulfed in flames on Sunday. Black smoke rose above a recycling plant, where tires, mattresses and other materials were piled up.
Firefighters were trying to prevent the fire from spreading to other factories. Meanwhile, a major forest fire that started on Saturday afternoon on the island of Serifos was extinguished by firefighters early Sunday. “The entire southwest of Serifos burned. The flames stopped when they reached the sea”Serifos Mayor Konstantinos Revintis told MEGA TV. Damage was caused to houses, warehouses and chapels, he said.
“Difficult times are ahead of us”
The forecast map released by the Ministry of Civil Protection for Sunday warned of a very high risk of fires for Attica, the southern Peloponnese peninsula, the island of Crete, the north and south of the sea Aegean and central Greece. On Saturday, a forest fire on Mount Parnitha, not far from the capital, was finally brought under control only after several hours, with the help of reinforcements from other regions and volunteer firefighters. In total, that day, more than forty fires broke out in Greece, with winds often exceeding 100 km/h, according to the fire department.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in his weekly Facebook message on Sunday, urged his countrymen to prepare for a situation that could deteriorate further. “Difficult times are ahead of us. Our effort is continuous, with the help of new tools that help build a new culture of prevention and responsibility., he wrote. Thus, he stressed, “The fire in Parnitha was extremely severe but fortunately it was detected immediately thanks to the surveillance drone system that was set up this year for the forests and mountainous areas of Attica”.
