Over 600 firefighters struggle to control Greece wildfires
- Hundreds of firefighters are fighting three major blazes, including one that has proved fatal in the northeast
- Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Cyprus have sent planes to fight the flames, while Romania, France, Bulgaria are among those to send manpower
More than 600 firefighters, including reinforcements from several European countries and backed by a fleet of water-dropping planes and helicopters, were battling three major wildfires in Greece on Sunday, two of which have been raging for days.
A massive blaze in the country’s northeastern regions of Evros and Alexandroupolis, believed to have caused 20 of the country’s 21 wildfire-related deaths in the past week, was burning for a ninth day.
The blaze, where smaller fires combined to form one of the largest single wildfires ever to have struck a European Union country, has decimated vast tracts of forest and burned homes in outlying areas of the city of Alexandroupolis.
On Sunday, 295 firefighters, seven planes and five helicopters were tackling it, the fire department said. Evacuation orders were issued for two villages, one in the Evros region and another in the Rodopi region.
The wildfire has scorched 77,000 hectares (297 square miles) of land and had 120 active hotspots, the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service said on Sunday.
Copernicus is the EU space programme’s Earth observation component and uses satellite imagery to provide mapping data.