.jpeg)
Evacuations
near Athens as Greece becomes focus of Europe’s wildfire crisis
High
winds spread flames through Attica while blazes stabilise in France and Spain
but risk of flare-ups remains high
Associated
Press
Sun 2 Aug
2026 14.52 BST
Europe’s
wildfire crisis fractured along starkly different fronts on Sunday: gale-force
winds drove flames deeper into the Athens region and forced fresh evacuations,
France guarded a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris against
renewed spread, and Spain’s major fires finally stopped advancing.
The
centre of immediate danger was Greece. Gale-force winds drove flames deeper
into western Attica, the administrative region that includes the capital,
threatening villages and an industrial district outside the city of Megara as
violent gusts prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting water from the
sea.
But the
easing emergency farther west offered little sense of an ending. France’s
largest wildfire remained contained after 224,000 people were forced to flee in
what may have been the largest peacetime evacuation in French history. Yet
active pockets still burned across 420 sq km (162 sq miles) of devastated
forest.
Thousands
remained unable to return home, and nearly 3,000 firefighters were deployed
against the Gironde megafire and a second blaze in Provence that had stopped
advancing but remained uncontained.
Fires in
France and Spain alone have driven roughly a third of a million people from
homes and holiday sites, emptied communities at the height of the summer and
stretched firefighters, aircraft and emergency services across simultaneous
disasters.
The
crisis is unfolding on the world’s fastest-warming continent. Europe has heated
at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the EU’s
Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Higher
temperatures and prolonged drought leave forests and scrubland drier and more
combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.
Human-caused climate breakdown doubled the likelihood of the extreme fire
conditions that fuelled the French blazes, scientists at World Weather
Attribution calculated in a rapid analysis on Thursday while the fires were
still burning.
Greek
authorities ordered the evacuation of three more communities on Sunday as
flames advanced through western Attica, threatening villages along the Geraneia
mountains and an industrial district outside Megara.
Nearly
500 firefighters and 23 aircraft were deployed, but gale-force winds
strengthened the fire while crippling the response. The winds drove flames
through dry forest and made it impossible for some aircraft to descend to the
sea for water.
Smoke
rose over the mountains as evacuation orders were issued for the communities of
Kandili, Agia Skepi and Toutouli. The prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was
briefed on the operation, with authorities particularly concerned about Porto
Germeno, a seaside community on the Gulf of Corinth.
The fire
began on Friday near Agios Vasileios before sweeping toward Porto Germeno and
into the forested mountains west of Athens.
Firefighters
evacuated 254 people by sea from Agios Vasileios on Friday and another 12 from
Porto Germeno on Saturday — an escape route of last resort in coastal
communities where fire and smoke can cut the few roads out.
A
wildfire meteorologist, Theodore Giannaros, estimated on Saturday that the
blaze had affected 40 to 50 sq km (15 to 19 sq miles), though authorities had
not issued an official figure.
“A
pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire,” a local
farmer, Minas Tzortzanis, said on Saturday. “There are no words to explain what
has happened. Destruction. Total destruction.”
The
danger carried grim resonance in Greece. In 2018, a wind-driven wildfire
trapped residents in the seaside community of Mati, east of Athens, killing 104
people in Europe’s deadliest wildfire this century.
In
south-western France, the Gironde megafire remained contained Sunday but was
still burning after scorching 420 sq km (162 sq miles) of forest in just 10
days.
“The fire
is now fixed, which does not mean that the fire is extinguished,” the Gironde
prefecture said on Sunday, using the French firefighting term for a blaze whose
advance has been stopped and whose perimeter has been contained.
The
region remained under France’s highest red forest-fire alert. Dry conditions
and soaring temperatures around Bordeaux, combined with afternoon winds,
created a continued risk of renewed flames.
Additional
firefighters from Ukraine, Lithuania and French Polynesia were expected on
Sunday and Monday to reinforce the operation.
Hundreds
of miles away, nearly 1,500 firefighters were battling a separate fire in the
south-eastern Var department that tore through roughly 18 sq km (7 sq miles) in
little more than a day.
Authorities
said the fire in the Gros Bessillon hills was stabilised on Sunday morning,
meaning its perimeter had not expanded overnight. But unlike the Gironde fire,
it had not yet been declared contained.
Firefighting
aircraft supported crews working to keep the flames away from villages among
the vineyards, olive groves and wooded hills of the region known as Green
Provence.
About
2,500 people were evacuated as the fire threatened communities.
The blaze
was the fourth major fire to strike the central Var since July 19. A separate,
smaller fire near Brignoles earlier in the week forced the Hollywood actor
George Clooney and his family, along with about 700 other residents, to
evacuate before it was brought under control.
The prime
minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said France’s wildfires were generally under
control but cautioned that conditions remained highly changeable.
He also
announced that a national coordinator attached to the prime minister’s office
would oversee reconstruction in fire-ravaged areas.
More than
1,170 sq km (452 sq miles) have burned across France since the beginning of the
year.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário