2023-08-20 13:03:41
After Rhodes, Corfu and Athens, it is the turn of northeastern Greece to be affected by violent fires. A fire broke out on Saturday near the village of Melia, near the northeastern border with Turkey. Greek authorities quickly evacuated eight villages.
Fanned by violent winds, which keep changing direction, the fire moves towards the airport of the port city of Alexandroupolis, whose approximately 70,000 inhabitants have been instructed to seal themselves at home so as not to breathe in the polluting fumes given off by the flames. Air traffic has not been canceled for the moment, despite the thick smoke which blurs visibility.
This Sunday morning before 7 a.m., the fire continues its course towards the villages of Nipsa, Loutro and Agnatia as well as a national road. At daybreak, the water drop planes took to the air again. Eleven bombers and six helicopters are mobilized, as well as 176 firefighters operating with 10 groups of infantry divisions, and 48 vehicles. Reinforcements were sent from other parts of the country.
Three coastguard vessels have also positioned themselves in a large maritime area of Alexandroupolis to help, if necessary, in the evacuation of the inhabitants, who will soon be joined by three other boats. “We are doing our best so that people’s lives are not in danger,” Christos Metios, governor of eastern Macedonia and Thrace, told the Athens News agency on Saturday.
There are currently no reports of injured firefighters or residents, but a dozen houses burned in two of the evacuated villages, Aetohori and Pefkax. On Saturday, a section of highway was closed due to the thick plume of smoke passing through it. On Saturday night, a dog shelter in the suburbs of Alexandroupolis was evacuated, and its 81 residents taken to a stadium far from the suffocating cloud.
Deadly forest fires wreaked havoc in central Greece just weeks ago, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of tourists on the island of Rhodes. Shortly after, two Air Force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to fight a fire on Evia Island. A forest fire also forced evacuations from the island of Corfu on the night of July 25-26.
On Saturday, another wildfire broke out outside Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city. Earlier, firefighters brought a fire under control on the western island of Kefalonia.
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