EUROPE-CLIMATE/GREECE-FIRE (PHOTO, TV) – REUTERS Agency
ATHENS, July 22 (Reuters) – A wildfire ripped through the Greek island of Rhodes on Saturday, forcing hundreds of people to flee affected towns and beaches, authorities said.
Coast guard boats and more than 20 private vessels took part in an operation to evacuate some 1,000 people from the beaches near the Kiotari and Lardos areas in the southeast of the island, a coast guard official said.
The firefighters, supported by air resources and reinforcements from Slovakia, fought against new outbreaks of the forest fire, which has been active for days and has been fanned by strong winds.
The fire has burned large tracts of forest since it broke out in a mountainous area on Tuesday. On Saturday it caused damage to three hotels in the coastal town of Kiotari, according to the Athens News Agency.
Civil protection authorities warned of a very high risk of forest fires in Rhodes and other parts of Greece on Sunday as temperatures were expected to hit 45 degrees Celsius amid a heat wave.
Fires are common in Greece, but hotter, drier and windier summers have made the country a hotspot for wildfires in recent years. Forecasters have warned that the current sweltering temperatures are expected to last until the end of the month.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; editing in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)
Source: Ambito
