The firefighters who carry 16 days fighting to contain the flames in the great fire in the Greek region of Evrosthey have managed this Sunday to control almost all the fronts of the fire, although there is still a very active focus that will require intense work in the coming days.
“Almost all other fronts have been mastered,” firefighter spokesman Giannis Artopios told Greek public television ERT today, but added that he also new outbreaks emerge “out of nowhere” at distances of up to 25 kilometers from the most intense work points.
He recalled that up to 19 outbreaks have been recorded in a single day in the Evros area and stressed that “turning off the last bulb will not be a matter of a day”, but that “The fire is now more manageable”.
The work of extinction is difficult, added the firefighter, because as it is a solid forest entirely on fire, the water that is thrown from the air cannot reach the ground to put out the embers.
According to Artopios, the battle of the firefighters is currently focused on the area south of Dadia forestwhere the extinction forces have acted effectively in the last hours with international help.
It was in the Dadia National Forest Park where firefighters found the charred bodies of 18 people, including two children, who authorities say were refugees who entered Greece irregularly from nearby Turkey.
According to Brussels, the fire in Greece is “the largest aerial firefighting operation in the EU to date”
Firefighters from Europe joined the extinction efforts that according to Brussels is “the largest aerial firefighting operation of fires in the EU to date”.
Also Spainwithin the framework of the emergency response mechanism of the European Union (EU), sent two additional aircraft which were added to those already sent by France, Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Cyprus and the Czech Republic.
Nearly 600 firefighters with a hundred vehicles and 17 aerial means participating in the tasks to contain the flames on the active front.
The great fire in Evros has already calcined more than 80,000 hectares In 16 days, and so far in 2023, more than 150,000 hectares (equivalent to 1.1% of Greek territory) have been burned in forest fires, according to the Greek government.
Its about second worst year in terms of burned area Greeceonly behind 2007.
