Pollution

Greek fire crews on Thursday scrambled to put out wildfires raging for two weeks around the country that left five dead before strong winds forecast for the day rekindle blazes.

Bringing the destructive wildfire under full control and protecting human life are the two main priorities for tourism professionals on Rhodes, who are also planning for the future.

Wildfires raging across Greece for more than a week abated on Wednesday, though firefighters still battled on several fronts to contain blazes that have killed three people and caused thousands of tourists to evacuate.

Standing outside the blackened shell of what used to be his restaurant, Dimitris Hajifotis laments a livelihood lost to wildfires raging on the Greek island of Rhodes this week.

"My life now stopped," he said. "Everything is taken by the fire."

Who lights the "fuse" that sparks wildfires and why? There are no easy explanations, as the Fire Service's investigators have not discovered the cause of most wildfires in Greece.

A livestock farmer in Evia who went missing on Sunday after he went to check on his animals has been found dead.

As reported by private broadcaster MEGA, the charred body of the 41-year-old farmer, who was from Platanistos, was found inside a hut, where, it appears, he had been trapped by a wildfire.

Large-scale wildfires have been ravaging parts of Türkiye amid intensifying heatwaves, with the latest one engulfing tourist hotspot Antalya's Kemer district, as firefighting crews pace up efforts to contain them.

As Türkiye, like the rest of the world, is recently experiencing record-breaking temperatures and heatwaves, teams are facing prolonged battles with numerous forest fires.

Wildfires have continued to rage across Greece, with Prime Minister Mitsotakis saying on Monday that the country is "fighting a war" against the fires. Greece's fire service capabilities have been stretched as new fires emerge amid a sweltering heatwave. 

The wildfire racing across the island of Rhodes for a week now had burned an estimated 34,200 hectares by Monday evening and rages on, uncontained.

On Monday, things took a turn for the worse as the fire tore past defenses and more evacuations were ordered, in the central and southern parts of the island.

Experts called it the "wildfire paradox." The Fire Service may be getting more firefighting equipment, including assistance from abroad, it may nip more fires in the bud before they can spread, but as long as flammable material keeps accumulating in the forests, those fires that start are becoming more difficult to contain, with the largest of them burning for several days.