The worst of wildfires that are still burning across Greece, which hit the seventh day on Aug. 9, had destroyed much of pristine forests on the big island of Evia north of Athens and had residents fleeing and trying to save what they could.
As the New Democracy government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was putting together a package of relief measures for people burned out of their homes, some 300 or more which were lost, fire crews kept battling blazes.
The smoke and ash from the fire on Evia, a rugged island of forests and coves almost touching the Greek mainland, blocked out the sun, turning the sky orange as the blaze rampaged across the northern part of the island.
At one point there were hundreds of fires across the country, most blamed on a combination of a brutal heatwave and failure to clear debris and brush and material tossed in woods by people, but there were a few arrests for suspected arson.
Media reports said lawyers have refused to represent people who will face arson charges and Mitsotakis was the first premier to say that burned-out land wouldn’t be used to build on as had happened in the past, allowing developers to profit even from fires deemed arson.
The heat that reached 116 degrees in some places, turned Greece’s forests, including large areas of easily flammable pine trees, into bone-dry tinderboxes that easily burned fast.
Other big fires have been burning forests and farmland in the southern Greek region of the Peloponnese, while a major blaze that burned through homes, businesses, and forests on the northern fringes of Athens was on the wane.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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