Where wildfires have spread in new heatwave and which areas are on high alert
At least 19 people are believed to have been killed in Greece as an uncontrolled wildfire rages for a fourth day in the north-east of the country.
The bodies of 18 people were found burned alive in a forested area of Dadia, in Greece’s Evros region near the Turkish border, according to Ioannis Artophios, chief of the fire department, local media reported.
Another body was discovered in a rural area in Lefkimini, near Alexandroupolis, on Monday, a local police official told Reuters.
Because no missing persons have been reported, the bodies are believed to be those of migrants, officials said.
A coroner and investigation team are heading to the scene in the Dadia forest. A huge number of migrants from the Middle East and Asia use the Evros river, which separates Greece from Turkey, to cross into the EU.
Dozens of hospital patients were evacuated on a ferry in the region’s port city of Alexandroupolis as the fire closed in. Sixty-five patients were moved to a ferry in the port on Tuesday, while hundreds of firefighters struggled to extinguish a blaze that broke out near the city on Saturday, officials said.
Nikos Gioktsidis, a nurse at the University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, said: “I’ve been working for 27 years, I’ve never seen anything like this. Stretchers everywhere, patients here, IV drips there … it was like a war, like a bomb had exploded.”
The fire near Alexandroupolis spread quickly after being fanned by strong winds, with smoke turning the night sky a vivid red. Fourteen people were evacuated by a coastguard vessel from a beach near the village of Makri.
Residents in the city have been advised to keep windows and doors closed due to the threat of smoke and ash from the fire, and ashfall has been reported in parts of the city.
“Under extreme weather conditions, mainly due to gale-force winds, a huge effort has been made to manage fire fronts that broke out simultaneously in many parts of the country,” Mr Artopios said on Monday evening. “The hours we are going through are extremely critical.”
Civil protection authorities have issued orange level four (on a five-tier scale) fire risk warning for the Evros region through to at least today, but warned the risk the fires would spread was high.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for at least 12 settlements in the area, including the villages of Melia, Avantas, Monastiraki, Doriskos, Amfitritis, and Maistros. The fire has reportedly damaged several homes in the affected villages.
Meanwhile, two new fires were burning near Athens, after one broke out on Tuesday morning in the foothills of Mount Parnitha, getting dangerously close to homes and a monastery, according to the fire brigade. Another fire was burning out of control in the industrial town of Aspropyrgos.
More than 120 firefighters and nine aircraft were fighting the blazes near Athens, the fire brigade said.
Fifty-six firefighters arrived in Greece from Romania on Tuesday and further assistance is expected from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany and Sweden with 64 more firefighters, 19 fire engines, seven planes and one helicopter, the fire brigade said.
Extreme fire risk warnings have been issued for several regions in the south of the country , including around Athens, which has experienced soaring temperatures this summer. This week they are expected to be around 40°C.
According to local media, an 80-year-old man collapsed while trying to save his sheep from the flames in the region of Boeotia, north of Athens.
Several communities in the Evros region, which includes Alexandroupolis, have been evacuated, with the risk of new fires high in the next few days.
“It has reached the entire village,” said Alexandros Chrisoulidis, 19, who lives in the village of Avantas. “Our own house up there, where the fire started, has completely burned down. There is nothing,” he said.
Summer wildfires in Greece are common but have worsened in recent years due to hot, dry and windy conditions that scientists have linked to climate change.
More than 20,000 foreign tourists had to be evacuated from the holiday island of Rhodes last month as wildfires burned for a week, destroying hotels and resorts.
