The end of the heat in Greece is approaching, fires continue to blaze

2023-07-25 09:02:00

The weather office warned of extremely high temperatures, which should prevail in almost all parts of the country on Tuesday and especially on Wednesday. “The thermometers could show 46 degrees and more, especially tomorrow, Wednesday,” said a meteorologist on the Skai news channel. A drop to around 35 degrees is expected on Thursday.

The situation in the southeast of the holiday island of Rhodes is bad. Strong winds blow there and fan the flames again and again. Several houses on the island’s mountains burned down on Monday, state television reported. Reporters at the scene feared these fires could threaten hotel properties again. Thousands of tourists and residents were recently brought to safety there.

The damage on Rhodes is already great. Around ten percent of the island’s hotels were damaged over the weekend, according to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Most of the damaged tourist facilities are located south of the Lindos region.

Topic of the day: Would you fly to Greece now?

ATHENS. Catastrophic forest fires have been raging on the Greek holiday islands for days. Thousands of tourists have been evacuated on Rhodes alone.

Topic of the day: Would you fly to Greece now?

Investigations into possible arson

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, investigations have been launched to clarify how these fires started. The judiciary is also determining whether the fire brigade acted correctly when the fire in the south-east of Rhodes was still small, state television reported on Tuesday.

However, representatives of the police and fire service unions dampened expectations that those responsible would be found at all. Experience has shown that the chances are low that those who intentionally and secretly set fires would be identified, said the unions on state radio. In most cases in the past it was determined that the arson was caused by negligence. In Athens, for example, a major fire broke out in the west of the city at the beginning of July. Two men were ultimately blamed; According to the investigation, they had carried out welding work outdoors.

The island of Euboea is also ravaged by fires. The region of the small port town of Karystos is particularly affected. The fire brigade managed to contain a fire on the holiday island of Corfu on Monday. Around 1,000 tourists who had been taken to safety gradually returned to their hotels, the local state regional broadcaster ERA-Corfu reported on Monday evening.

Those affected can contact the Austrian Foreign Ministry (+43 501150-4411) or the Embassy in Athens (+30 6944278148) at any time. The Greek authorities have set up a helpdesk at the airport. Vacationers whose passports were lost during the evacuation will receive a confirmation there. Travelers can use it to board the plane without a travel document, a spokeswoman said.

Other countries in the Mediterranean region are also struggling with heat and drought. At the beginning of the week, there was a high risk of forest fires in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. In Malta, the high temperatures also led to power outages, some of which lasted up to 36 hours. State-owned power company Enemalta blamed the high temperatures for damaging many of its underground cables.

A large fire that broke out in the mountains around Palermo airport reached the airport premises on Monday, which was closed to traffic until 11 a.m. Eight flights were canceled. The A29 motorway was also affected by the fires. Three driveways were closed. The fires also threatened the “Cervello” hospital, local media reported. Fire brigade teams have been deployed with a helicopter and firefighting aircraft in the areas affected by the fires since Monday evening. The fires also raged in other provinces.

A passenger plane operated by the US company Delta Air Lines got caught in a storm shortly after taking off from Milan and had to cancel its flight. Flight DL185 with destination New York was diverted to Rome, where the machine landed safely on Monday afternoon, as reported by the Ansa news agency. The passengers got off “normally”.

The Red Cross warned of the danger of old ammunition explosions in light of the heat wave and forest fires. In former war zones, the detonators of duds could be set off by very high temperatures, said Erik Tollefsen, weapons expert at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. The same applies to ammunition that has not been cleared at military firing ranges and abandoned ammunition depots, which are often set up in remote areas, Tollefsen told the German Press Agency.