Fires: a fire has divided an island in Greece in two | The flames advance on the houses and the villages are evacuated

The blaze continues to run out of control in Greece, where forest fires have already devoured more than 70,000 hectares and the flames have split the island of Euboea, the country’s second largest, in two. “We are in the hands of God. The state is absent. If people leave, the cities will surely burn,” said Yannis Selimis, a resident of Gouves, in northern Euboea, whose last inhabitants were desperate. had to be evacuated urgently.

Selimis, 26, told AFP news agency that “in the next 40 years we will have no work and in winter we will drown under water, without forests to protect us.” The last inhabitants of Gouves were transferred to the beach of Pefki, where several hundred meters away, a military ship waits patiently off the coast, to embark these inhabitants.

“We tried to stay at home until the last moment, but half of our land was burned,” laments Eli Kouveli. This woman in her fifties had to give in and resign herself to leaving her home in the face of danger on Wednesday.

Located in the Aegean Sea and about 200 kilometers east of Athens, the situation on the island is dire. Evia woke up in a thick cloud of smoke and a rain of ash. The town of Ellinika is currently surrounded by flames, as firefighters and the few neighbors who have not accepted the order to leave their homes try to save what they can.

According to the in.gr site, residents and tourists gathered on Agios Nikolaos beach while waiting to be evacuated by sea, according to the ANSA agency. “They burned our paradise,” Tryantafilos Konstandinos, 46, told authorities, adding: “We are done.”

The last fighters who had resisted, they had to leave, reach the beach and get to safety. “Euboea, it’s over,” said Cleopatra Plapouta. “People are fighting alone. Not a single firefighter in the villages,” he insists, handkerchief and mask on his face. Her husband said, “We have been on fire for a week” and explained that “the fire started 60 kilometers from here. 60 kilometers!”

“They abandoned us, they lied to us. This is the first day that the planes arrive,” Maria Mousxogianni also said angrily. His hotel faces the sea but currently does not welcome tourists, only two families who have had to leave their homes.

Meanwhile, flames reached the small town of Vasilika, and a 6-kilometer fire front burned a vast pine forest, approaching the town of Gouves. Firefighters are trying to stop the fires in several locations to prevent more homes from being destroyed after 200 families were left homeless.

But the fire also spread on the continent, in the Peloponnese, at the gates of Athens. It is because Greece and Turkey are experiencing the worst heat wave in decades and have been battling fires for almost two weeks. According to AFP, the fire consumed 70,059 hectares in Greece and left two dead. Experts have linked high temperatures to climate change.

Interviewed by Skai TV, the governor of central Greece, Fanis Spanos, said more than 2,500 people were staying in hotels and other establishments. In turn, the mayor of Istiaia, Ioannis Kontizias, denounced the absence of firefighting planes on the Evia front. “We are alone, I have been asking for planes for five days,” he protested.

Some 260 Greek firefighters, assisted by a hundred vehicles and supported by more than 200 Ukrainian and Romanian colleagues, were deployed Sunday morning in the north of the island and supported by seven planes and helicopters, the firefighters reported. The flames were also approaching homes in the villages of Ellinka, and Psaropouli, after destroying hundreds of homes in the area.

Meanwhile, a plane crashed today while conducting firefighting operations on the Greek island of Zakynthos, firefighters reported, who said his pilot was unharmed. The device was carrying out an operation to extinguish a small fire on this Ionian island, when it crashed for a still unknown reason, according to the same source.