appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Firefighters, volunteers and residents on the Greek island of Evia joined together late on Monday to battle fires that have been blazing for eight consecutive nights.
Residents of the village of Kamatriades joined emergency crews to form a human chain as a wall of flames approached their homes in the early evening.
Large groups of young men with backpacks and masks joined in, according to images shown on television.
Greece has been battling fires nationwide for days, amid an unseasonably hot summer, with blazes reaching the suburbs of Athens.
The country's firefighting resources are stretched to their limits and many citizens are angry, saying they feel abandoned to their fate by the government.
Alongside Kamatriades, the nearby towns of Istiaia and Avgaria were also evacuated.
Supplies of power and water failed in the areas where the fires are burning, forcing the fire brigade to deliver water in fire trucks.
Many of the helpers were armed only with twigs to beat down the approaching flames.
Such ground work is necessary particularly at night however, as firefighting planes and helicopters cannot fly in the dark, and otherwise, wildfires would spread unchecked.
Volunteers, residents and fire crews managed to prevent the flames from reaching several other villages late on Monday.

Elsewhere in Greece, lighter winds provided some respite, after fires were fanned, and new ones sparked, by heavy winds in recent days.
Fires continued to burn north of Athens, however, despite the efforts of firefighters who have been battling the flames for days.
Emergency crews tried to put out smaller blazes that flared up anew and stop them from spreading.
Some 10,000 households in the area remained without power on Monday. The more than 1,000 fallen and burned electricity pylons and kilometres of melted cables are due to be removed by the end of the week.
Fires continue to ravage Greek forests, cutting large island of Evia in half
A heatwave is forecast for southern Europe as of Monday, however, with temperatures expected to rise to more than 40 degrees Celsius in many places.
Help had come from more than 20 other countries to support Greek emergency forces by Monday.
The Greek government announced plans to wholly reorganise the civil defence agency to focus more on prevention instead of reacting, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a televised speech on Monday.
He also pledged dedicated reconstruction funding for people, along with reforestation plans.


Can China team’s Greek dig unveil an untold truth in ancient world history?

More passengers from hantavirus-hit cruise ship test positive

Spanish, Brazilian flotilla activists released after detention in Israel

Gaza flotilla activists detained by Israel face ‘extreme brutality’

Greece

Firefighters, volunteers and residents fight wall of flames on Greek island of Evia

Firefighters and volunteers use a hosepipe to extinguish a fire in the village of Glatsona on Evia island on Monday. Photo: AFP

A woman with her dog stands next to a ferry at the port of the village of Pefki, during a wildfire at Pefki village on Evia (Euboea) island, the second largest Greek island, on August 8, 2021. - Firefighters tried on August 9, to prevent fires from reaching key communities and a thick forest that could fuel an inferno that one official said has destroyed hundreds of homes in seven days on the Greek island of Evia. If most of nearly two weeks of fires had stabilised or receded in other parts of Greece, the ones on rugged and forested Evia were the most worrying and created apocalyptic scenes. (Photo by ANGELOS TZORTZINIS / AFP)

Fires continue to ravage Greek forests, cutting large island of Evia in half

A resident from the village of Pefki watches approaching flames on the island of Evia in Greece on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

A man uses a tree branch to extinguish a wildfire burning in the village of Pefki, on the island of Evia, Greece, August 8, 2021. REUTERS/Nikolas Economou

Flames rise near a building in the suburb of Thrakomakedones, as a wildfire burns in north of Athens, Greece, August 7, 2021. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis

A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire burning in the village of Pefki, on the island of Evia, Greece, August 8, 2021. REUTERS/Nikolas Economou

Dixie Fire: Thousands flee flames as California fire now second-worst in state history

A house burns during the Dixie Fire on Highway 89 in California on Sunday. Photo: TNS via Zuma Press / DPA

Thousands flee fires in Greece and Turkey as blazes continue to burn through Europe

Flames spread in the village of Afidnes, north of Athens, Greece on Friday. Photo: AFP

People try to extinguish a wildfire spreading in the village of Akcayaka in the area of Milas in the Mugla province, Turkey, on August 6, 2021. - In Turkey, at least eight people have been killed and dozens more hospitalised as the country struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

A man is silhouetted as he watches a wildfire burning in the village of Lasdikas near ancient Olympia, Greece, August 5, 2021. Picture taken August 5, 2021. REUTERS/Giorgos Moutafis

An airplane drops water on a wildfire that broke out in a forest area in northern Athens.

Wildfires threaten Olympics birthplace in Greece, blaze near Turkey power plant contained

A wildfire approaches the Olympic Academy, foreground, in ancient Olympia, Greece, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken on August 4, 2021 shows smoke covering Athens centre, due to fires burning at the foot of Mount Parnes, 30 kilometres north of Athens. - Greek firefighters said in a statement that they hope to bring a forest fire blazing near Athens under control "in the coming hours". More than 500 firefighters, a dozen water-bombing planes and five helicopters have been battling the blazes outside the capital since August 3 afternoon. (Photo by LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP)

An helicopter drops water during a wildfire in ancient Olympia, western Greece, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Greece evacuated people in boats from an island beach Wednesday amid heavy smoke from a nearby wildfire and fire crews fight elsewhere to keep flames away from the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games as the country sweltered under a record heat wave. (Giannis Spyrounis/ilialive.gr via AP)

A man walk crosses a road in the vicinity of a forest fire close to the Kemerkoy Thermal Power Plant, at Oren in Milas, northen Turkey on August 4, 2021. - A Turkish thermal power plant on the Aegean Sea was being evacuated on August 4, as a wildfire that has raged across the country for the past week reached its edge.Rescuers used helicopters and water cannon, in a fitful fight to save a Turkish power plant from being engulfed by deadly wildfires testing the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

People watch a wildfire burning the forest in Turgut village, near tourist resort of Marmaris, Mugla, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. As Turkish fire crews pressed ahead Tuesday with their weeklong battle against blazes tearing through forests and villages on the country's southern coast, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government faced increased criticism over its apparent poor response and inadequate preparedness for large-scale wildfires.(AP Photo/Emre Tazegul)

A man uses a fire extinguisher in an attempt to help fight a wildfire in Varympompi suburb north of Athens, Greece, August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Giorgos Moutafis

News

World

Europe


Residents of the village of Kamatriades joined emergency crews to form a human chain as a wall of flames approached their homes in the early evening
The country‘s firefighting resources are stretched to their limits and many citizens are angry, saying they feel abandoned to their fate by the government



Residents of the village of Kamatriades joined emergency crews to form a human chain as a wall of flames approached their homes in the early evening.


Climate change

Environment

Extreme weather