Thousands evacuated as Greek, Turkish wildfires rage

Bangkok Post

4 days ago

ATHENS - A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds on the southern Greek island of Crete has forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists, officials said Thursday.
An elderly man died in neighbouring Turkey, where wildfires forced the evacuation of six villages in the western province of Izmir.
Some 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of Athens, another fire broke out near the port of Rafina on Thursday afternoon and had already burned five or six houses, one local mayor told ERT public television.
Hot dry weather in Greece -- not unusual for this time of year -- has heightened the risk of a repeat of the summer wildfires that have hit the country in recent years.
Turkey, although spared the recent heatwaves that gripped southern Europe, has battled the effects of a long-term drought likely brought on by climate change.
On Crete, about 5,000 people were evacuated after a blaze that broke out Wednesday evening, the president of the regional hotels' association told AFP.
Yorgos Tzarakis said about 3,000 tourists and 2,000 residents had been moved, mostly overnight, as a precaution from areas close to the Crete resort town of Ierapetra.
Vice-prefect Yannis Androulakis told Greek broadcaster Mega officials had ordered the evacuations because water bomber planes could not reach the affected areas overnight.
Those evacuated had been put up in hotels or gyms in Ierapetra, in the southeast, he added.
Strong winds on three active fronts helped the fire to progress, said Androulakis.
Fire service spokesman Vassilios Vathrakoyannis said around 170 firefighters, 17 firefighting planes, 48 fire engines and seven helicopters were fighting the blaze.
Winds reached nine on the Beaufort scale, he added.
- One dead in Turkey -
In Turkey, two wildfires broke out near Izmir, Turkey's third city. In each case, three villages were evacuated.
"An elderly, bedridden patient could not be saved," said Salih Uzun, a lawmaker in Izmir for the opposition CHP party, of the blaze close to Odemis.
Izmir governor Suleyman Elban said the main problem had been wind speeds of up to 85 kilometres per hour (53 miles per hour) and their constant changes of direction.
"So the intervention from both land and air is seriously challenging," he told reporters, adding that the flames had cut off the main highway from Izmir city.
In both places, a total of "nine planes, 22 helicopters and 1,100 (fire trucks and other) vehicles are intensively fighting the fires".
He said both fires in the province, as well as others over the weekend and since mastered, had been caused by power cables.
Meteorologist Ismail Kucuk, citing forestry ministry figures, told AFP "90 percent of forest fires" were due to man-made causes. Power cables in particular posed a risk if not properly maintained, he added.
- Uneven, arid terrain -
The inaccessible terrain in Crete, Greece's largest island, has made it difficult for firefighters to tackle the blaze.
The fire damaged houses and crops in fruit and vegetable greenhouses, media reports said.
Like the rest of Crete, Ierapetra -- a seaside resort with a population of 23,000 -- takes in thousands of tourists in the summer.
The risk of fires was "considerable" in July, the hottest month of the year in Greece, Vathrakoyannis said.
The country recorded its hottest-ever summer in 2024, when 45,000 hectares (110,000 acres) of land burned, according to WWF Greece and the Athens National Observatory.
In terms of surface area destroyed, 2023 was the worst on record.
Nearly 175,000 hectares were obliterated and 20 people died during heatwaves when temperatures rose in places to 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit).
Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkey to take measures to tackle the problem.