Greece: Fires continue to advance in the northeast

disaster Firefighters battled 53 wildfires in the past 24 hours

Fire near the city of Alexandroupolis, August 20, 2023. — Ilias Kotsireas/AP/SIPA

Fires continue to advance in northeastern Greece; this near the port city of Alexandroupolis for the second consecutive day due in particular to the winds at 7 Beaufort, declared Sunday the authorities.

“For the second day in a row, firefighters, volunteers, army, police and local authorities are waging a major battle against the fire at St. Alexandroupolis” the Minister of Civil Protection and Climate Crisis, Vassilis Kikilias.

The island of Euboea at; risk

“Fire hazard forecasts put the islands of Euboea, Attica, Boeotia, Argolis and Corinth on red alert on Monday,” came the minister. “Please be careful.” Firefighters battled 53 wildfires in the past 24 hours, authorities said.

The most important of them is now advancing southeast of the village of Loutros and towards Monastiraki and Doriko, according to the same sources. Firefighters are trying to prevent the fire from reaching an animal rescue center near Doriko, the fire department said. to Open TV one of their spokespersons, Giannis Artopios.

20,000 people evacuated from Rhodes in July

On Saturday, several villages had to to be evacuated. In Greece, in the middle of a heat wave, a fire, triggered by on July 18 and stoked; by strong winds, had ravaged in ten days nearly 17,770 hectares in the south of Rhodes, a very touristic island in the Aegean Sea (southeast).

Around 20,000 people, mostly tourists, had to to be evacuated. The country experienced the biggest heat wave for a month of July at the end of July with temperatures of over 40°C in many places, according to the National Observatory in Athens. Multiple fires then broke out, in particular on another very touristic island, Corfu (north-west), from where some 2,500 people had to to be evacuated.