Image: SAKIS MITROLIDIS (AFP)
This was announced by a spokesman for the fire department. The region will be from migrants often used as a route for crossing Turkey into the European Union.
Probably illegal immigrants
“Since nobody is missing, we assume that these are illegal immigrants,” fire department spokesman Giannis Artopoios told Greek state broadcaster ERT. Even before the 18 dead were found, another migrant had probably been found in the area who had died of smoke inhalation. In the forest area of Dadia they hide again and again migrantswho entered Greece illegally from Turkey via the border river Evros. How many people are there and could be at risk is completely unclear.
In the Boeotia region west of Athens there has been a fire since Sunday night – a shepherd died there on Monday who tried to save his animals from the flames and probably died of smoke inhalation, the fire brigade said.
help from Europe
Because of the serious fires in Alexandroupolis, Greece is again receiving help from other European countries. To fight the fires, further help is on the way, Commissioner Janez Lenarcic, the EU Commissioner responsible for crisis management, posted on the online platform X on Tuesday morning. “In addition to two firefighting planes from Cyprus and firefighters from Romania, there are five more planes and a helicopter as well as additional firefighters on the way,” he wrote. The help comes from Germany, Croatia, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
Several cities affected by fires
The plumes of smoke from the massive Dadia fire are so great that the smoke can clearly be seen and smelled hundreds of kilometers away. Residents and tourists on the islands of Ithaca and Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea, more than 500 kilometers to the west, were woken up on Tuesday morning by clouds of smoke and stench, the sky was dark. Satellite images showed that the swaths could even reach Italy if the wind blows accordingly.
Many people from the evacuated areas have now arrived in Alexandroupolis and need to be accommodated. Some of the approximately 175 patients from the evacuated university hospital were accommodated on a ferry, and serious cases were also transferred to hospitals in other cities, as reported by the Skai news channel.
The people of Nea Artaki and Psachna on the second largest Greek island of Euboea also spent a nightmarish night. A great fire raged on a mountain there, threatening the villages. The industrial area of Nea Artaki and other settlements had to be evacuated. Houses and stables burned down, Greek media reported; In many places, water and electricity failed because power poles burned down and the lines were torn down with them.
The situation was similar on the island of Kythnos, where there have been fires on two fronts since Monday and the flames have not yet been brought under control. Four settlements have been evacuated there so far, but the fire has not yet reached the houses. Hotels are not threatened either, the mayor of the island told journalists.
Large fires are also raging on the islands of Euboea and Kythnos, west of Athens and near the northern Greek port of Kavala. By far the largest source of the fire is in the Dadia National Park, far in the north-east of the country near the border with Turkey. Strong to stormy winds blew there and fueled the flames.
A fire broke out in the municipality of Aspropyrgos 15 kilometers west of Athens on Tuesday morning. Strong winds also prevailed there, and residents were asked to leave the area via warning SMS. Plumes of jet black smoke could be seen from downtown Athens – there is little vegetation in Aspropyrgos, but there are large garbage dumps, industrial halls and mountains of car tires that caught fire. The mayor of the municipality, Nikos Meletiou, criticized the state broadcaster ERT that the location had to be used for the garbage of the capital Athens and that the situation was extremely difficult due to the poverty in Aspropyrgos. The civil defense called on people in nearby towns to keep the windows closed and not to leave the house.
Arson suspected
There, as well as for the forest fire in Dadia, the authorities assume arson, although the suspected perpetrators have not yet been identified. However, twelve fires broke out in Dadia within two hours on Monday, for example, which is considered an indication of arson.
The further prospects for the development of the fires were extremely bad on Tuesday: Civil defense warned of a very high to extremely high risk of forest fires for almost all of Greece. The main problems are the strong winds and, in some places, squalls, which drive the flames in front of them and expand the fire fronts. They make fire-fighting work almost impossible and also very dangerous for the fire-fighting helicopters and planes.
Source: Nachrichten
