Fires in Greece

A fire broke out near the town of Megara in Attica on Wednesday afternoon. According to information available to Kathimerini, the fire broke out in a wooded area in a gorge and no residential areas are under threat.

The Hellenic Fire Service announced that 35 firefighters, nine vehicles and two aircraft are operating to put the fire out.

Images of biblical destruction continue to unfold in Greece, where wildfires have been burning their way through forests farms and settlements since August 2 and where, in the next few days, temperatures are expected to soar to 42 degrees Celsius.

Balkan countries are battling wildfires that have claimed eight lives in Turkey and injured hundreds more, while one person died in Albania and a military officer been injured.

Fires have destroyed land, forests, houses and tourist accommodation in Greece and Turkey. Villages and neighbourhoods have been evacuated in Turkey, Greece and Albania.

Turkish officials insist they are doing everything to stop the fires but the opposition and many ordinary people have criticized the government for its allegedly weak response.

"We are altogether fighting the forest fires in our country," the General Directorate of Forestry said on Sunday on Twitter.

The testimony of dozens of fire and other officers and witnesses on the ground during the deadly 2018 east Attica wildfires point to a string of oversights that appear to lie mainly with the Hellenic Fire Service.

Forest fires have consumed some 500 hectares (over 1,200 acres) of land in İzmir, Turkey's Aegean coast, an official said on Aug. 19.

Firefighters on Saturday were dispatched to Mandra, in western Attica, to battle a blaze that broke out on forestland in the area of Eryrthres. 

According to a fire service officers, the blaze was not threatening residential areas by 6 p.m.

A large wildfire was burning low grassland in the area of Marathonas, eastern Attica on Saturday, though no residencies were at risk.
The fire service has deployed a total of 146 firemen with 47 vehicles who were assisted by seven water-dropping aircraft and three helicopters.

Nearly a year after disastrous wildfires ravaged eastern Attica, killing 103 people, Greek authorities have drafted a plan aimed at curbing the unchecked construction in the area that allowed the blazes to spread so quickly and protecting coastal settlements.

The findings of a recent report by three prosecutors on last summer's east Attica wildfires that claimed 100 lives constitutes a scathing exposure of the cynical cover-up campaign that followed the deadly event.