Firefighters were battling a series of forest fires near Athens on Sunday evening, with authorities fearing the worst for this summer in Greece.
A tourist hotspot, the country is plagued by 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.
Two large forest fires were raging Sunday evening in Attica, the region where the Greek capital is located, and residents of at least eight areas near the city were urged to evacuate their homes.
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.
Sunday was “the most difficult day that firefighters have faced in fighting fires this year,” firefighters spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis insisted to the press.
In Keratea, south of the capital, the fire that broke out around 1 p.m. affected cars and houses, at least four of which were completely destroyed, according to Ertnews.
“The situation is very difficult, because strong winds continue to blow,” at a speed of over 60 km/h, and “there are many outbreaks,” Lavreotiki Mayor Dimitris Loukas told the ANA news agency.
However, he assured that the neighboring air base was not currently threatened.
The day before, a fire had already broken out in the same area, before being brought under control.
Black smoke
The industrial zone of Ritsona, on the island of Euboea, which extends 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.
Separately, a large forest fire that started 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 lamented.
“Difficult times”
The forecast map published by the Civil Protection Ministry for Sunday warned of a very high risk of fires for Attica, the southern Peloponnese peninsula, the island of Crete, the northern and southern Aegean Sea and central Greece.
On Saturday, a forest fire on Mount Parnitha, not far from Athens, was finally brought under control after several hours, with the help of reinforcements from other regions and volunteer firefighters.
In total, more than forty fires broke out in Greece that day, with winds often exceeding 100 km/h, according to the fire service.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in his weekly Facebook message on Sunday, urged his compatriots to prepare for a situation that could get even worse.
“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 underlined, “the fire in Parnitha was extremely harsh, but fortunately it was detected immediately thanks to the surveillance drone system which was set up this year for the forests and mountainous areas of Attica.
