Firefighter

It's midday on Friday, July 7, and the phone rings on the desk of Vasileios Bikas, the coordinator for foreign detachments at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Hellenic Fire Corps Training Center. The call is about a blaze in brushland in the East Attica town of Keratea that may not be threatening houses but has the fire service on alert.

The authorities have ordered the evacuation of the towns of Lagonisi, Saronida, and Anavyssos as the wildfire in the Kouvaras region of eastern Attica has moved close to homes in the area.

There are over 150 firefighters with 40 vehicles operating on scene, along with seven aircraft and four helicopters. A firefighting force from Romania is also assisting.

A parked car was engulfed in flames on Archaeotiton Street in Neapoli, Thessaloniki, in the early hours of Friday. Nno injuries were reported as a result of the incident.

The local fire department swiftly responded to the scene, dispatching seven firefighters and two fire trucks to extinguish the flames.

A fire broke out Monday, engulfing dry grass in close proximity to the train tracks of the Proastiakos suburban railway in Zevgolatio, near Corinth.

As a precautionary measure, the train service between Piraeus and Kiato has been temporarily suspended, following the instructions of the Fire Department.

A 40-year-old firefighter has died in Thessaloniki while on duty and extinguishing a fire.

The firefighter was part of a contingent that had been called to extinguish a fire in dry grass.

According to a local news site, the firefighter suffered a fatal heart attack during the operation.

A wildfire that broke out near the town of Aliveri, on the island of Evia, north of Athens, was still active Friday morning.

A 75-year-old man has been arrested for smoking out beehives at the site where the fire started, Fire Service spokesman Yannis Artopoios told reporters.

Two wildfires broke out on Thursday in separate incidents on the island of Lesvos, in eastern Greece, and the region of Ilia, in the western Peloponnese. 

The Fire Service said it had sent 22 firefighters with four vehicles and two water-dropping aircraft near the semi-mountainous settlement of Antissa, in western Lesvos. 

Police in Lesvos have conducted an operation to locate and bring to safety 10 newly arrived migrants to the northern Aegean island.

The operation, which was focused on the Plomari area in the south of the island, also involved coast guard, firefighters and a police aircraft.

A contingent of 20 firefighters, with ten tenders, are fighting a forest fire in the Almyros Gorge, west of the Cretan city of Iraklio.

Firefighting authorities on the island have appealed to Cretan residents and visitors not to start fires in the countryside "for any reason."

It is not easy to describe what a veselica is. A rural party unique to Slovenia, it is heavy on traditional polka and its more modern renditions, with ample amounts of booze and fatty food. It is unbridled fun - but also big business for performers and a vital source of money for the organisers.