Firefighters battle deadly blazes in Greece for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday, while anger mounts in devastated areas near Athens over a repeat of the fires.
• Also read: Forest fires: Athens is shrouded in thick black smoke
• Also read: New wave of fires in Greece, 20 dead in two days
Just outside the Greek capital, the devastating flames, fanned by high temperatures and strong winds, continue to spread to the foothills of Mount Parnes, home to the largest forest near the Greek capital.
They have been threatening an important national park for two days, which, according to the fire department, is home to many species of birds, Kefalonia firs, Aleppo pines and oaks.
These fires also prompted evacuations from residential areas.
In the night from Wednesday to Thursday there was “a fire explosion” in the area, said the spokesman for the fire brigade, Yannis Artopoios, on the public broadcaster ERT.
The frontline of operations is in an area that mixes forest and urban fabric about twenty kilometers north of the capital, he explained.
In the small village of Aghia Paraskevi at the foot of Mount Parnès, which is permeated by a strong smell of burning, the streets will be cleared of their residents on Thursday.
In places, the carcasses of charred cars and burned trees bear witness to the advance of the flames through the small gardens, the vegetable gardens and the alleys in the past few hours.
Photo: AFP
Then, during the morning, the locals return to the site to inspect the damage and volunteer to help.
anger and bitterness
Many are expressing their anger and bitterness as major fires sweep Greece for the second time in a month, after those on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Euboea and the Athens region in late July.
Among them, Nikos Lazarou, a 32-year-old mechanic, speaks about his “anger”. The fires “recur every year, the authorities should take action and so should the people,” assures the man who lives in Germany.
“The state really needs to tighten up the penalties (for arson), it can’t go on like this, the whole country has burned down,” added Nikos Xagoraris, deputy mayor of the neighboring town of Acharnes, on public broadcaster ERT before bursting into tears.
Antonis, a 35-year-old bank employee who declined to give his name, said he was “sad” at the extent of the damage.
“We often went for a walk in this forest (it was burning, editor’s note), it was our little breath. “My child will grow up without being able to see it,” he laments.
The fires have burned more than 60,000 hectares in northern Greece and 5,000 hectares west of Athens in just a few days, according to estimates by the National Forest Fire Observatory of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
On Wednesday evening, Athenians residing in certain central districts could see flames and a fire on the forested hills near the capital from their balconies or windows.
The main front was in the north of the country, where a major fire that broke out near the port city of Alexandroupoli on Saturday is now forming a unified front more than 15 kilometers long.
The bodies of 19 suspected migrants, including two children, were found in the area this week.
Authorities have warned there are likely to be more casualties among asylum seekers in the European Union as the region is a key entry point for migrants from neighboring Turkey.
millennial monastery
A third major fire erupted in Boeotia, north of Athens, where a thousand-year-old Byzantine monastery, Osios Loukas, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, narrowly escaped destruction on Wednesday.
According to meteorologists, the high temperatures associated with drought and strong winds in places will continue until Friday.
The thermometer is expected to show up to 38°C in some parts of the country this Thursday.
Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias warned on Wednesday that the country is experiencing its worst summer of fires since fire risk maps were introduced in 2009.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” he said.
The Greek government, which attributes the fires to climate change, is accused of not doing enough to protect biodiversity and take measures to prevent the fires.
At the end of July, a long heat wave caused severe fires, with temperatures exceeding 45 °C in places.