The fire department reported that more than 300 firefighters are working in the Porto Germeno area, located about 70 km northwest of Athens, in the Boeotia region.
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“The fire has reached the sea (…), homes are definitely damaged,” a fire department spokesperson told the AFP news agency.
“The winds are very strong. Aircraft are trying to work as best as they can, but some cannot do so and have been transferred to another fire (in the Peloponnese), where conditions are milder,” he added.
People initially ignored evacuation calls
The fire broke out on Friday near the coastal village of Agios Vasilios. Residents initially ignored evacuation calls, so about 300 people had to be rescued by sea.
The meteorologist and senior scientist for forest fires at the National Observatory of Athens, Theodoros Gianaros, said on Saturday that the damage to the Porto Germeno area is unimaginable.
“It seems that the affected area exceeds 4–5 thousand hectares,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
This week, forest fires flared up in several parts of the country, including the popular island of Crete, and three firefighters have already died.
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On Friday, another fire broke out in the suburb of Chaidari west of Athens, which had to be partially evacuated.
The highest fire danger level declared in much of Athens
On Saturday, the highest fire danger level was declared in much of Athens, some parts of the Peloponnese and Crete, central Greece, and the border region with Turkey.
Greece’s geographical location with hundreds of islands complicates the rapid deployment of rescue services.
Like the rest of the Mediterranean region, the country suffers greatly from the climate crisis, and forest fires occur here every summer due to high temperatures, frequent heatwaves, and droughts.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned on Thursday that Greece, which this summer, unlike France and Spain, has largely avoided major heatwaves and powerful fires, faces “difficult days.”
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