Athens, Aug 3 (dpa/GNA) – Greek firefighters continued to battle a large-scale wildfire west of Athens on Sunday.
Hundreds of emergency responders were at the scene all night in the Kithairon Mountains, supported by military vehicles, volunteers and heavy equipment.
At daybreak, firefighting planes and helicopters resumed their operations, state broadcaster ERT reported. According to meteorologists, the gale-force winds that raged until Saturday have eased slightly. “That gives us hope,” a spokesman for the Greek fire brigade told the media.
Emergency responders said the fire is continuing to move eastward and is now only a few kilometres from the city of Megara, about 50 kilometres west of the Greek capital. According to official reports, at least 500 firefighters are battling the flames, including crews from Romania and France.
In the Athens area, the large-scale operation is impossible to ignore as firefighting aircraft and helicopters heading for the region fly overhead. A fire brigade spokesman stated that 13 people have been arrested nationwide so far on charges of negligent arson.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described the situation as exceptional. “There are situations in which the nature and intensity of weather events overwhelm all human planning and operational capacity,” he said in a Facebook post. Several villages were ordered to evacuate via warning text messages.
Whilst the fire brigade battled the flames, members of animal welfare organizations attempted to bring domestic, farm and wild animals to safety from the fire zones, the news website Ethnos reported.
According to an estimate by meteorologists, around 10,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land has been destroyed in the west of Athens so far.
A major wildfire is also raging on Cephalonia, though ERT said that no towns on the island are currently under immediate threat.
Meanwhile, local media reported the wildfires on Crete have largely been extinguished. Up to 200 homes have been destroyed, according to the media reports, though there has been no official confirmation of this figure.
GNA