In a nightmarish repeat of previous summers, fires erupted in forests heading towards a coastal city in Northeast Greece. Authorities were prompted to evacuate eight surrounding villages and a city hospital on Tuesday as firefighters grappled with multiple forest fires across the country.
These firefighting efforts were hindered by strong summer winds and high temperatures. Hundreds of firefighters, assisted by dozens of water-dropping aircraft, combated the flames that blazed across Greece.
Many areas, including the broader Athens region, have been designated as having a “severe” fire risk for the second day in a row on Tuesday. Authorities have restricted public access to mountains and forests in these regions until at least Wednesday morning and have deployed military patrols.
Around 65 of the over 100 patients from Alexandroupolis hospital in Northeast Greece were transferred to a ferry anchored in the city’s port as the country’s largest currently uncontrollable forest fire raged on its fourth day. Others were relocated to other hospitals in Northern Greece.
The fires turned the sky above the city and across the region a haunting red, obscuring the sun. Choking smoke and swirling ash patches filled the air. Two villages near Alexandroupolis suffered damage to a school, several homes, and a cemetery as over 200 firefighters, supported by four aircraft and three helicopters, battled the flames.
Local authorities reported that tens of other homes were affected by another forest fire in the Kavala region. A separate fire ignited in the Evros border region, spreading across a protected national park forest. The coast guard evacuated 14 individuals by sea overnight from a nearby coastal area to the port of Alexandroupolis.
A fresh fire broke out in Aspropirgos on the western outskirts of the Greek capital on Tuesday morning, leading authorities to issue evacuation orders for two villages in the area.
In a show of international solidarity, Romania sent 56 firefighters, Cyprus dispatched two water-dropping aircraft to assist in the Alexandroupolis forest fires, while French firefighters aided in handling a separate blaze on the island of Evia.
Every summer, Greece grapples with devastating forest fires. The country’s deadliest forest fire took 104 lives in 2018 at a coastal resort near Athens, where residents were not warned to evacuate. Since then, authorities, erring on the side of caution, have issued rapid mass evacuation orders whenever populated areas are threatened.
Last month, a forest fire on the resort island of Rhodes led to the evacuation of approximately 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots lost their lives when their water-dropping aircraft crashed while flying low over a fire in the Evia region. Three other forest fire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.
