Firefighters are on a war footing to try to control the flames, in a country plagued by numerous fires.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
Eleven water bombers, a dozen helicopters and more than a hundred firefighters are fighting against a violent forest fire which threatens the olive grove of Amfissa, one of the largest in Greece, in the center of the country. Located at the foot of Mount Parnassus and stretching to the Gulf of Corinth, this olive grove has hundreds of thousands of olive trees, some of which are centuries-old trees. The flames have already devoured 300 hectares of agricultural land and 900 hectares of brush on Tuesday July 5, according to firefighter spokesman Yannis Artopios.
The fire broke out the day before near the village of Sernikaki, 15 kilometers from the ancient archaeological site of Delphi, without however threatening it. Fanned by strong winds of up to 70 km / h, the fire quickly spread to the Amfissa olive grove and a large fire brigade was immediately sent to the scene to fight the flames. An investigation has been opened to determine the causes of the fire.
Dozens of small and medium forest fires have broken out in recent days in Greece, having burned mainly brush and forest. Civil Protection warned last weekend that due to strong winds and temperatures of up to 35 degrees, “the risk of fires was very high” this week in some areas. In total, “fifty-two forest fires” broke out in 24 hours across Greece, Yannis Artopios said.
Tuesday afternoon, the pine forest of the seaside resort of Porto Germeno, at the foot of Mount Gerania (west of Athens) was engulfed in flames. In the western Peloponnese, a fire that broke out on Sunday in Ilia prefecture has still not “not yet circumscribed”, the fire department said. In the east of this region, another forest fire broke out on Monday near the village of Kranidi, and a hotel had to be evacuated as a precaution.
Last summer, Greece – and especially the island of Evia – was hit by scorching temperatures and violent forest fires, which ravaged 103,000 hectares and killed three people. The authorities had attributed the disaster to climate change, but environmental NGOs also noted shortcomings in the prevention system.