Greece lives a slight respite this Thursday as the record temperatures of a wave of extreme heat that led to almost 600 fires in the last ten days moderated. The most serious were on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Euboea, and another in the center of the country, which are still out of control.

Although the drop in thermometers has improved the situation on the fronts on the islands, the strong winds that continue to blow in the Magnesia region, in central Greece, have revived a large fire declared yesterday, Wednesday, on Thursday. This has forced the authorities to evacuate at least nine towns on Thursday afternoon.

Some 128 firefighters with 47 vehicles were fighting the fire on Thursday, which overnight reached the industrial zone of the port city of Volos, where it burned several industrial facilities. Several nearby towns have been left without water and electricity, since the fire also burned transformers and other electrical installations in the industrial area.

According to the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vasilis Kikilias, during the last ten days a total of 594 fires were declared in Greece. Only in the course of the day on Wednesday were six new fires unleashed in the Magnesia region, which caused the death of two people, bringing to five the number of fatalities that forest fires have left in the country so far. Hellene.

The prime minister, the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis, pointed out that the country “is at war with the fires” and that in the face of the “anger” of nature “no measure will be enough.” However, experts criticize that the authorities do not have a plan to properly manage the forests (clean them, efficiently reduce vegetation) and create firebreaks before summer arrives.

Improve the situation on the islands

On the island of Rhodes, in the eastern Aegean Sea, thousands of firefighters and volunteers continue to fight for the tenth consecutive day against the huge forest fire that has already burned more than 16,000 hectares of forest, in addition to burning several houses.

Although the fire has not yet been fully controlled, the situation is considerably better than in previous days and the flames no longer threaten populated areas, the spokesman for the Fire Department, Yannis Artopiós, reported Thursday.

But what happened is for the experts an “unprecedented” natural catastrophe, since thousands of hectares of virgin forest were burned and an as yet unquantified number of animals perished due to the flames and/or the dense smoke.

The fire has become a threat to a rare species of fallow deer called dama-dama, which can be found only on Rhodes and in Mesopotamia. In total, 310 troops, with 65 vehicles, continue to be deployed in the area to be able to quell the outbreaks in case they are revived.

The fire is also in remission on the island of Euboea, northeast of Athens, where two pilots died on Tuesday when a tanker plane operating in the area crashed. The situation has also improved on the island of Corfu, in the northwest of the country, where more than a hundred troops are fighting against small outbreaks that do not threaten populated areas.

Strong northerly winds swept across southeastern Europe overnight, ending Greece's three-week heatwave, with temperatures reaching 46.4ºC, the highest ever recorded for the country. However, the risk of fires will remain high for the next few days, due to the drought and strong winds that will hit some parts of the country.