Firefighters in Greece 'Pushed to the Limit' as Winds Rage
Over 300 firefighters are battling the blaze as winds reach 130 km/h and some 300 residents were rescued by sea, officials said.
- On Saturday, over 300 firefighters battled a major wildfire near Porto Germeno, 70km northwest of Athens in the region of Viotia. Violent winds continue to hamper firefighting operations at the coastal resort.
- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned on Thursday that Greece faced "difficult days" as the country battles extreme summer heat. High temperatures and drought plague the Mediterranean region annually.
- Residents initially ignored evacuation calls, requiring some 300 people to be rescued by sea. A fire department spokesman told AFP the blaze "reached the sea" and homes have certainly been damaged.
- Wildfires have flared across Greece this week, affecting nearly 5,000 hectares on Crete and nearly 1,000 hectares on Paros. According to the National Observatory of Athens, winds reached up to 130 kilometres per hour on Saturday.
- Authorities issued a maximum fire risk alert for Saturday spanning the greater Athens area, the Peloponnese, and Crete. Greece's geography, featuring hundreds of islands, complicates the rapid deployment of emergency responders.
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Tiroler Tageszeitung OnlineHeavy wind complicates the extinguishing work west of Athens and on the Peloponnese. At night fire planes and helicopters have to pause, while excavators on the ground hit snows against the flames.
Firefighters are struggling for a second day to contain a rapidly spreading fire near the Gulf of Corinth in the resort of Porto Germeno. According to the e-Kathimerini portal, the situation is being greatly complicated by strong winds, which are fanning the flames and making aerial firefighting difficult. Rescuers had to evacuate several people from the beach in the area early Saturday morning because the flames had cut off their land route.
Hundreds of firefighters were fighting on Saturday to save a coastal tourist complex northwest of Athens in the midst of strong winds that make operations difficult. About 60 forest and agricultural fires were declared in the last 24 hours, the firefighters said. The most worrying was declared in the area of Porto Germeno, about 70 kilometers from the capital of the country, has put on high alert several regions. About 500 troops operated in the…
The firefighters and volunteers continue to fight the forest fires flared up in Beozia, Greece, with the flames spreading in Attica, reaching the thick pine forest around the coastal village of Porto Germeno, about 70 kilometers from Athens, where there are at least three active fronts. The fires started yesterday have [...] The article Greece continues to burn, fires at the gates of Athens: critical situation for the strong wind Video comes fro…
The forest fires in Greece bring firefighters to their borders: with strong wind, hundreds of forces fought against flames in several places in the country on Saturday. Almost 500 firefighters were deployed near the coastal holiday resort of Porto Germeno alone, as civil defence minister Evangelos Tournas said. The wind was partly so strong that firefighting aircraft could not absorb water or let off over the flames. In the south-west of France,…
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