World Courant
BBC
Buildings and companies in Vrilissia have been destroyed by the fires
Greece has skilled summer time fires earlier than, however this time the flames got here dangerously near the capital.
At one level there have been fears {that a} line of fireside stretching miles in the direction of Athens would type, fuelled by robust winds and excessive temperatures.
In Vrilissia, on the northeastern outskirts, simply 14 kilometers from town heart, buildings and companies have been destroyed by the flames.
The physique of a 63-year-old girl was present in a burnt-out manufacturing unit in close by Patima Halandriou, the primary confirmed sufferer of the hearth that has already burned greater than 40,000 hectares of land and injured dozens of individuals.
Colleagues mentioned she was too scared to leap from the constructing because the flames had been closing in, trapping her inside.
The suburbs of Nea Penteli, Vrilissia and Patima Halandriou are among the many worst affected areas.
Even residents of Athens neighborhoods that escaped the hearth reported Tuesday seeing ash falling on their balconies.
The large cloud of smoke that hung over Athens for hours has now disappeared, though the air continues to be hazy.
Firefighters say they’re exhausted after days of making an attempt to forestall the flames from spreading additional into the capital.
Local weather Disaster and Civil Safety Minister Vassilis Kikilias praised the “superhuman effort” of some 700 firefighters, supported by forest commandos, who’ve been battling the hearth in northeastern Attica for 40 hours since Sunday afternoon.
“We had been confronted with a stage 5 hearth threat with wind gusts of 7-8 Beaufort (gale pressure), persistent drought and a rugged space with these traits – mountains, forests and scattered homes,” he mentioned.
Marble and stone supplier Thanassis Kevezes was compelled to depart his store in Vrilissia on Monday as a consequence of smoke and flames.
When he returned to his yard the subsequent morning, he estimated the injury at €30,000 (£25,000).
Thanassis Kevezes says pine timber have exacerbated forest fires
A significant downside, he mentioned, was the extremely flammable pine timber that develop on this space and in a lot of Greece: “We love them as Greeks, however on the identical time I personally hate them now.”
Within the suburbs of Vrilissia and Nea Penteli, and additional northeast in Varnavas and the traditional metropolis of Marathon, residents and enterprise homeowners are counting the prices.
A pine forest that burned close to Varnavas went up in flames and hundreds of hectares of farmland had been destroyed. Burning pine timber despatched hissing into the air made the duty of combating the fires much more troublesome.
Sotiris Evangelopoulos got here to evaluate the injury at his father-in-law’s home, within the far northeast of Athens.
Luckily, the constructing was in good order, aside from some injury to the entrance backyard.
Over the course of his life he noticed summer time temperatures improve, seasons turn out to be longer and winters turn out to be hotter and shorter.
Mr Evangelopoulos criticised the authorities for permitting the capital to broaden additional into the pine forests surrounding Athens, placing residents at better threat of forest fires.
Through the years, Athens has expanded into the encompassing forest areas
Kostas Lagouvardos, analysis director on the Nationwide Observatory of Athens, agrees that this has difficult the state of affairs.
“It is extremely troublesome to discover a resolution as a result of town is increasing into an space the place there are timber and forests.
“Then again, you’ve weather conditions that change from yr to yr. We now have had three summers that had been highly regarded and really dry and you’ve got very giant fires, not solely in Athens however in lots of different areas in Greece.”
In the interim, firefighters are concentrating on scattered fires relatively than one giant hearth entrance.
A brand new evacuation order was issued for a part of the coastal city of Nea Makri on Tuesday, and flames had been approaching properties within the close by city of Erythros. The robust winds of Sunday and Monday weren’t as extreme on Tuesday morning, however meteorologists warned that they might choose up once more within the afternoon.
Mr. Lagouvardos believes policymakers and engineers must work with nationwide and native authorities to discover a resolution. However he’s pessimistic in regards to the future, and never simply due to the elevated threat of wildfires.
“You may have implications for agriculture and well being. You may have a really lengthy interval of excessive temperatures in Athens this summer time. You may have many areas within the heart with excessive temperatures additionally at night time, which is a really significant issue for human well being.”
Greek wildfires method Athens and suburbs depend prices
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