Several forest fires, fanned by strong winds, broke out on Monday several tens of kilometers east and west of Athens, leading to the evacuation of several seaside areas in a country plagued by a heat wave.
About 80 km west of the Greek capital, 1,200 children have been evacuated from holiday camps threatened by fire near the resort town of Loutraki, close to the Isthmus of Corinth, announced the mayor, Giorgos Gkionis.
As a precaution, traffic on the highway linking Athens and Corinth was interrupted for several hours in the afternoon, according to the Greek news agency ANA.
By nightfall, the front of this fire, which seemed one of the most worrying, now extended over 10 km, according to the public television channel ERT.
“We must prevent the fire from crossing the highway and spreading further,” insisted firefighter spokesman Yannis Artopios.
Nearly 50 km east of Athens, in Kouvaras, another fire had been raging since the middle of the day. Carried by intense winds, it spread to Anavyssos, 40 km southeast of the Greek capital, in the densely populated region of Attica.
“It’s a difficult fire, the winds are very strong up to 7 Beaufort (50 to 60 km / h)”, indicated Yannis Artopios, adding that “the fire spread over 12 km in just two hours “.
A man suspected of having started this fire was arrested by the police in the afternoon, he also announced.
But according to ANA, the 32-year-old man, suspected after testimonies from residents, was finally released, for lack of evidence against him.
Ten water bombers, six helicopters and 210 firefighters, including 31 Romanians, were mobilized on both fronts of this fire, according to Yannis Artopios.
The fire, which first destroyed brushwood, quickly spread near the seaside areas of Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Saronida where there are many secondary houses.
Traffic was halted in the afternoon on nearby roads in Kalyvia, which were invaded by thick smoke, and authorities asked residents to leave the scene.
Several houses were burned, according to images broadcast by the public television channel ERT and an equestrian center, threatened by the flames, as well as a monastery were evacuated.
A third front broke out on Monday afternoon in a forest area in Boeotia, about fifty km northeast of Athens. According to firefighters, 94 people and 30 vehicles are operating at the scene.
Yannis Artopios warned that “tomorrow was also going to be a difficult day”.
“The risk of fire is high […] according to the forecast with strong winds of up to 7 Beaufort in the Aegean,” he noted.
First heatwave of the year
Like part of Europe, Greece was hit by its first heatwave of the year this weekend with a peak of 44.2°C in the central Thebes region, according to the National Observatory in Athens. .
Monday around 6:30 p.m. local time, the thermometer showed between 35 and 36 ° C in Athens. A new heat wave is expected from Thursday.
“Today was the first really difficult day of this summer. It is certain that others will follow. We have had, have and will have fires, it is also one of the consequences of the climate crisis that we are experiencing with increasing intensity, ”said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis from Brussels.
“Our bet is how to limit them as quickly as possible, so that the damage we suffer is as minimal as possible,” he added.
During the summer of 2021, huge fires devastated part of the country, killing three people and destroying more than 100,000 hectares of forest.
In 2018, more than 100 people died in Mati, near Athens, in the worst deadly fire in the country.