PostedJune 5, 2022, 1:53 p.m.
Fanned by strong winds, the fire ravaged the vegetation south of the Greek capital. Just under 300 firefighters mobilized so that residents might return to their homes.
Many firefighters remain deployed in the area south of Athens “and will stay as long as necessary, while planes will continue to drop water” as a precaution.
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Greek firefighters have managed to control a violent fire in the southern suburbs of Athens, where residents were able to return to their homes, the emergency services said on Sunday. “At this point the fire has been contained, the residents are back in their homes,” Deputy Civil Protection Minister Evangelos Tournas told a press briefing.
Many firefighters remain deployed in the area “and will stay as long as necessary, while planes continue to drop water” as a precaution, he said. A total of 283 firefighters in 65 vehicles, with the help of groups of passers-by, mobilized during the night to bring the fire under control. Two firefighter planes and two helicopters were still in operation early Sunday.
While the fire is under control, authorities have nevertheless said they remain on high alert in case it starts up once more.
Damaged vegetation
The fire, fanned by strong winds, ravaged vegetation in the southern suburbs of Athens on Saturday, forcing many residents to evacuate. Greek civil protection has called on 112 of the residents of Ano Voula and the surrounding area to leave their homes, as the flames have already reached a residential area.
Giorgos Papanikolaou, the mayor of Glyfada, where the fire broke out, explained, without providing further details, that a high-voltage power station had been the cause of the disaster. Later in the followingnoon, another fire broke out near Athens, in Kouvaras, but no residential areas were threatened.
High heat
Greece’s worst heat wave in decades last summer, which authorities blamed on climate change, sparked fires that destroyed more than 100,000 hectares of forest and farmland , the worst fire damage since 2007.
More than 200 firefighters and equipment provided by other European Union (EU) countries will soon be deployed to Greece to help in the fight once morest these wildfires. Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Norway will take part in this operation, coordinated by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the European Commission has announced.
(AFP)