Ecological disaster in Greece: shocking photos of how forests were burned

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday described the devastating forest fires that ravaged the country for more than a week as the biggest ecological disaster Greece has seen in decades.

The fires broke out as the country was going through the longest and most intense heat wave since 1987. Hundreds of forest fires broke out across the country, putting firefighting capabilities to the limit and prompting the government to look to foreigners for help. Hundreds of firefighters, along with planes, helicopters and vehicles, have arrived from 24 countries in Europe and the Middle East to provide assistance.

“We managed to save lives, but we lost forests and properties”Mitsotakis said, describing the fires as “The biggest ecological disaster of recent decades”.

At a press conference in Athens, his first since the fires started, Mitsotakis said that the authorities had faced a hundred active fires every day. On Thursday, the situation improved a lot and most of the large forest fires subsided.

However, the prime minister warned that the danger of new fires persists.

“It is mid-August and it is clear that difficult days lie ahead” until the end of the main fire season, he said.

“The climate crisis – I would like to use that term, and not climate change – is here, and it shows us that everything must change”he said, adding that he was ready to make the necessary “bold changes”.

“It is a crisis common to all of us,” he said.

Greece’s biggest fire broke out on August 3 on the country’s second largest island, Evia, and on Thursday it was still burning, having destroyed most of the north.

More than 50,900 hectares were damaged in northern Evia, according to maps from the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service. Entire mountains of forest, mostly pine, have been reduced to blackened stump heathland, while olive and fig plantations and vineyards were also destroyed.

Over 850 firefighters, including hundreds of Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland and Moldova, continued their efforts to prevent fires from starting in the region, with the help of nine helicopters and eight planes, including two huge Ilyushin 11-76 water launchers sent by Russia.

In the region of Peloponnese, in southern Greece, they were still burning two big fireswhile firefighters reported Thursday night that there had been 106 fires in Greece in the last 24 hours.

Volunteer firefighter died while working in an area north of Athens hit by a large fire, after being hit by a falling utility pole. Four volunteer firefighters hospitalized for burns, including two in critical condition in intensive care.

“We have succeeded in protecting thousands of people. But we have lost forests and properties “Mitsotakis said during his press conference. “And we’re here to talk about everything … (including) where nature has caught us off guard,” he added.

(With AP information)

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