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Gallery|Climate Crisis

Wildfires tear through Greece’s forests

Homes, businesses and farms burned during Greece’s most protracted heatwave in 30 years.

Volunteers feeding a hose to firefighters trying to extinguish a blaze in Agios Stefanos, in northern Athens. [Thanassis Stavrakis/AP Photo]
Published On 8 Aug 20218 Aug 2021
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Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country’s second-largest island, isolating its northern part.

Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as “a biblical catastrophe”.

Firefighters were fighting through the night to save Istiaia, a town of 7,000 in northern Evia, as well as several villages, using bulldozers to open up clear paths in the thick forest.

The other dangerous fires were one in Greece’s southern Peloponnese Peninsula, near Ancient Olympia, and one in Fokida, in the Central Greece region north of Athens.

The fire in Olympia moved east, away from the ancient site, threatening villages in a sudden flare-up on Saturday afternoon.

North of Athens, the fire on Mount Parnitha – a national park with substantial forests – was still burning with occasional flare-ups.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters on Saturday night that firefighters hoped to contain the fire on Sunday.

Smoke from that fire was still spreading across the Athens basin.

Earlier, the blaze had sent choking smoke across the Greek capital, where authorities set up hotlines for residents needing health assistance.

Smoke spreads over Parnitha Mountain during a wildfire in Ippokratios Politia village. [Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo]
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People getting on a ferry during an evacuation from Kochyli Beach as wildfire approaches near Limni village on the island of Evia. [Thodoris Nikolaou/AP Photo]
Greek and European officials have also blamed climate change for the large number of fires burning through southern Europe, from southern Italy to the Balkans, Greece and Turkey. [Thodoris Nikolaou/AP Photo]
People walk towards a ferry during an evacuation from Kochyli Beach. Greece has requested help through the EU's emergency support system. [Thodoris Nikolaou/AP Photo]
A man stands in the water watching as wildfire approaches Kochyli Beach near Limni village on the island of Evia. A volunteer firefighter died on Friday and at least 20 people have been treated in hospitals over the last week during Greece's most intense heatwave in 30 years. [Thodoris Nikolaou/AP Photo]
A helicopter drops water on a fire near Malakasa in northern Athens. [Petros Karadjias/AP Photo]
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People who fled their homes during wildfires are accommodated at an indoor hall in Chalkida, the capital of Evia island. [Thodoris Nikolaou/AP Photo]
A burned car is seen on a road during a wildfire at Ipokratios Politia, in northern Athens. [Petros Karadjias/AP Photo]
A helicopter flies over a burn area during a wildfire in northern Athens. Firefighters and aircraft were sent from Croatia, Cyprus, France, Israel, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the US. [Petros Karadjias/AP Photo]
Firefighters operate in Thrakomacedones, in northern Athens. [Michael Varaklas/AP Photo]
Wildfires tore through massive swaths of Greece's last remaining forests on Saturday, encroaching on inhabited areas and burning scores of homes, businesses and farmland. [Petros Karadjias/AP Photo]


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