A massive fire that ate up half of Greece’s second-biggest island of Evia some 111 kilometers (69 miles) north of the capital Evia was being battled for the seventh day Aug. 10 as legions of firefighters and water-dumping equipment were engaged.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the devastation on the forest-filled island of some 1,417 square miles “a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions,” striking during the heart of a recovering tourism season during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smoke and ash from Evia blocked out the sun and turned the sky orange, noted Kathimerini in a report on the unrelenting battle against the flames that destroyed homes and spread so fast that more than 1150 people in and around the village of Limni had to be rescued and taken away on a ferry boat.
Greece at one point had been hit by some 586 fires this August, blamed on a combination of tinder box conditions because of a brutal heat wave, arson, accumulated brush that wasn’t cleared from woods, and unlawful dumping.
Mitsotakis said that his New Democracy government would be the first to bar building on burned land after years of summer blazes had seen developers swoop into erect homes and profit from disasters.
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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