Image: (APA/AFP/SAKIS MITROLIDIS)
The fire brigade confirmed to the state broadcaster ERT on Monday that the shepherd was around 80 years old. The man wanted to save his animals from the flames and passed out in the smoke and probably suffocated, it said.
The major fire broke out on Monday night for reasons unknown and spread quickly due to the stormy winds in the region. The beach town of Paralia Saranti was evacuated as a precaution in the morning. According to civil protection, the highest to the highest level of forest fire danger prevailed on Monday for the affected region and many other areas across the country.
“The wind is our greatest enemy”
A fire in the north-east of the country, which has been raging for days near the port city of Alexandropoulis, has not yet been fully brought under control. The fires are still dangerous, the state broadcaster reported. As a precaution, twelve villages and settlements were evacuated over the weekend. However, many people could have returned by now, it said.
“The wind is our biggest enemy,” a spokesman for the fire brigade told the state broadcaster ERT. Because it hasn’t rained in some of the affected areas for months, the vegetation has dried up. If plants and trees catch fire, the wind drives the flames forward so quickly that the fire brigade hardly has a chance at first.
Fires also on Euboea
Meanwhile, two more major forest fires broke out in Greece on Monday. One of them has been raging on Euboea, the second largest island in the country, since noon, affecting the towns of Psachna and Nea Artaki, according to the fire brigade. The outskirts of the villages located in the direction of the fire were evacuated as a precaution. In addition, a new fire ignited in the extreme north-east of the country near the border river Evros. There it burned in the Dadia National Park.
The island of Euboea was already extremely affected by forest fires in the summer of 2021: At that time, around 50,000 hectares of vegetation burned, especially on the northern half of the heavily forested island.
Source: Nachrichten
