Hristos is a retired forestry officer who knows the mountains of Dadiá National Park in the Greek province of Evros like the back of his hand. He drives his private car in front of the fire, which stretches through the forest as far as the eye can see and is already the largest ever registered by the EU. At this point, the flames progress slowly as the wind blows towards the already burned part. There are no firefighters around. Efforts are focused on other locations where the fire is progressing more quickly. Jristos looks helpless. “What am I doing? Should I pick up a branch and hit it? It wouldn’t do any good,” he says to himself. The forestry official gives frightening figures: 52 square kilometers of Salem pine have burned, almost all of the large specimens, and now the threat is looming another eight of the smallest variety of these trees, where the honeycombs are concentrated. , one of the sources of wealth in the region. “If the wind direction changes, we are lost,” he warns.
Like the llamas, Jristos is located near Yanuli, a small town at the entrance to the national park. The few residents were evacuated on Wednesday evening as the fire threatened their homes. Along with them, 15 migrants who had just secretly crossed the border to Turkey and happened to be there were also evacuated. But not everyone left. Alexandros, a retired woodcutter, stayed to protect his home. “It’s the only thing I have. If it burns, I’ll lose everything,” he says. Both he and his neighbor were on alert throughout the night.
A neighbor of Alexandros hitchhikes to Suflí, the nearest town. Even though they are barely eight kilometers apart, when he arrives it feels like he is on another planet. Suflí is so close to the fire that its residents received a text message from civil protection on Wednesday evening warning them to prepare for a possible evacuation. But at first glance it doesn’t seem to affect life in the city. Although the gigantic column of smoke rising from the surroundings of Yanuli can be seen ominously from the streets, no one seems to be paying attention.
All shops are open. In a grocery store at the entrance to town, the shopkeeper doesn’t even understand that the question “How are things going?” is not being answered. refers to fires. After almost two weeks, the neighbors have gotten used to fire trucks speeding by. No one looks up anymore when a helicopter flies overhead at low altitude. In fact, there is a lot more activity than the day before and the café terraces are open as normal. In one of them, a group of pensioners discuss current events. They are talking about the Champions League game that AEK lost against Antwerp on Wednesday.
In Tijeró, 10 kilometers from Suflí, the receptionist at a hotel doesn’t seem to be very informed. “I don’t know, I didn’t see anything. Up there [en referencia a Yanuli] There has to be something,” he admits without concern. An employee at a nearby gas station doesn’t seem to be feeling unwell either. Rather jaded. When asked about the subject, he smiles and jokes: “Let’s see if the fire reaches Bulgaria so that the soldiers can put it out.” [bomberos] Bulgarians, because you can see that ours can’t do it.”
Meanwhile, in Yanuli the panorama is devastating. This city lies within the extensive security area, the entrances of which are monitored by the police. Although it is forbidden, after a little insistence, an agent allows passage, emphasizing with bad manners that it is the strict responsibility of the person handing over control. During the morning several residents returned to check whether their houses were standing. Luckily they were found unharmed. Houses burned in other cities in the region. The fire is now in its thirteenth day.
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Alexandros, like most of the city’s residents, arrived from Kazakhstan in 1994 as part of a resettlement program offered by the Greek state to the Pontics, the Black Sea Greeks. Since then, most have made a living from the forests they now see burning, either in the timber industry or in conservation. There is a barracks next to the town and several buildings were burned down. Several soldiers of different ranks assess the damage. They wear FFP2 masks. It’s not difficult to breathe, but the eyes and throat itch.
Alexandros doesn’t protect his face. He rode around on his moped all morning; He knows exactly how to get to the flames and insists on giving instructions to two firefighters. One of them, Agent Kazagoritis, replies that they cannot decide anything autonomously. He has arrived to reinforce the unit, which already includes half a thousand soldiers.
Alexandros, this Thursday near Yanuli.Hibai Arbide
Far from being controlled
Kazagoritis and his partner are not optimistic. Although they make it clear that they do not have all the information, they are certain that the fire is far from under control. It’s more about days than hours. Two vehicles with soldiers stop next to them. They have just arrived from Orestiada, a town a little further north, near the tri-border border between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. Captain Kaliorgios asks the firefighters for directions. “They told us to come to Yanuli to help in any way we can,” he tells them. Kazagoritis shows them where to go but warns them:
—If you see fire, don’t pass by.
“We have already gone through the fire.
Meanwhile, a helicopter loads water into rubber tanks set up in a nearby meadow, which in turn are supplied by tank trucks. The seaplanes return at 2:30 p.m. in favorable conditions. There are six of them, perfectly aligned in two groups of three, and they are refueling in the sea, 40 kilometers south. The entire route consists of charred meadows and forests.
A convoy of 11 vehicles arrives in Suflí. They are Slovak firefighters who arrived in Greece two weeks ago. They were initially deployed to a fire near Athens and have been deployed in Evros since Thursday. Alexandros insists on explaining that behind the cemetery there is a dirt road that leads to the place where the helicopter is unloaded. He feels a little calmer when they confirm that the Slovaks are going there.
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