Firefighters race to contain wildfires in Greece : NPR
The firefighter uses a pipe as trying to turn off the fire near the city of Ierapetra on the southern coast of the island of Crete, in Greece, while a rapidly evolving forest fire prompted the authorities to identify villages and coastal areas, officials said.
STR / AP / Intimate News
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STR / AP / Intimate News
Athens, Greece – Firefighters fought flames near Athens and on the island of Crete on Thursday, where thousands of people were forced to flee vacation stations, while the flames in neighboring Turkey cost at least two lives.
More than 5,000 tourists, hotel workers and residents were evacuated from the Ierapetra region along officials of the southern Côte de la Crete, hotel authorities and associations said. A small number of people fled in the sea and were saved by local fishermen and divers.
The mayor of Ierapetra, Manolis Frangoulis, said that the firefighters were working to prevent thrusts and take advantage of an lull in strong winds. Fortunately, no one was injured but it was a difficult situation, “he said.
Displaced tourists were moved to other hotels or spent the night in an interior basketball stadium. Several houses and businesses have been damaged. The volunteers found dead farm animals, some burned alive while they were chained inside the hangars. In addition, a forest fire near the port of Rafina, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Athens, disturbed local ferry services to the islands. The police went to the door to help the elderly while carrying out an evacuation prescription. In western Turkey, a local forestry worker was killed while he was trying to contain the fire near the city of Odemis, and an 81 -year -old resident died of smoke, the authorities announced. He marked the first deaths of a series of forest fires which forced thousands of people to flee.
Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters, supported by planes and helicopters, were deployed to fight a forest fire near the coastal city of Cesme, a popular holiday destination about 190 kilometers (120 miles) west of Odemis.
This fire, which started on Wednesday, forced the evacuation of three districts and led to road closings. TV images have shown flames that run through dry vegetation on both sides of a highway.
During last week, Turkey was fighting hundreds of forest fires powered by strong winds, extreme heat and low humidity. Now, mainly under control, the flames have damaged or destroyed around 200 houses.
Summer forest fires are common in Greece and Turkey, where experts warn that climate change intensifies the conditions.
On Wednesday evening, the Turkish Parliament adopted a historic climate law targeting net-zero emissions by 2053. The legislation includes measures to establish a carbon market council to supervise efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The law occurs at a time when Turkey is increasingly struggling with problems related to climate change, stew waves of prolonged droughts, according to experts.
“As a Mediterranean country, Turkey is very vulnerable to climate change,” said Gizem Koc, a lawyer for the defense of the environment-based environment based in the United Kingdom. “The most striking vulnerability is drought and water stress in certain regions, but there is also an increasing frequency of floods and other extreme meteorological events.”
