ATHENS (VG) For a week, forest fires have caused fear in Greece. Now they have become the largest in the entire history of the EU.
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– It is exhausting. There are so many fires.
Panagiotis Papadopoulos (33) is surrounded by burnt forest, and it is difficult to hear his voice as the fire helicopters circle only a few tens of meters above his head.
The fires are almost non-stop around him, but he and hundreds of other firefighters continue to battle the flames that are creeping up the hillsides just outside the capital, Athens.
– I only slept for an hour, he continues.
There have been hundreds of fires that have ravaged Greece in the past week, while high temperatures and strong winds have made rescue efforts difficult.
Photo: Kyrre Lien / VG
Greek authorities say that several of the forest fires have probably been set on fire by pyromaniacs, or have arisen due to careless people.
79 have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the fires.
At the same time, the man-made climate changes mean that forest fires around the world are becoming more and more dramatic.
Increased temperatures, long heat waves, strong winds and unstable weather systems all contribute to wildfires now often becoming stronger, as well as harder to control.
This joins a series of incidents of extreme weather this summer, which has caused fear and unrest among Norway’s leading climate scientists.
The forest fires in Greece have sent enormous amounts of smoke into the country and towards the Mediterranean, in what has been observed from space.
Photo: Kyrre Lien / VG
Some of the most powerful fires are in the north-east of the country, in the Evros region.
It is an area with large forest areas, but also a place where thousands of desperate refugees and migrants try to get through to reach safety in Europe.
In this area, 18 charred bodies were also found, in what the Greek authorities believe are migrants who have been on the run.
In this area, more than 730 square kilometers have burned down, and EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic has stated that “this is now the biggest forest fire that the EU has ever had”.
Photo: Kyrre Lien / VG
On Tuesday, 65 patients at the university hospital in Alexandroupolis had to be evacuated as a result of an approaching fire.
– I have worked for 27 years and I have never seen anything like this, says nurse Nikos Gioktsidis, according to the NTB news agency.
– Stretchers everywhere, patients here, intravenous drips there. It is like a war, as if a bomb has exploded, he continues.
Some of the patients were so ill that they were connected to intravenous fluids while being transported aboard ships that carried them to safety.
Photo: Kyrre Lien / VG
In response to the forest fires, the EU has sent five planes and a helicopter, in addition to firefighters from Romania.
It is not the first time that forest fires have ravaged Greece this summer.
Earlier this summer, uncontrolled fires burned on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evvia, as well as near Volos in central Greece.
In July, 20,000 people, mainly tourists, had to be evacuated from Rhodes.
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Published: 25/08/23 at 11:11 p.m
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2023-08-25 21:11:13
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