Greece battled a dozen major wildfires, including one threatening its third-largest city Patras, as a heatwave stoked blazes and forced the evacuation of thousands in southern Europe.
Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, the Balkans and Britain have this week wilted in high temperatures that fuel wildfires and which scientists say human-induced climate change is intensifying.
Thousands of firefighters backed by the army deployed across Greece, with fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis saying “the situation remains difficult” for “forces waging a tough battle”.
“It’s a cocktail of high temperatures, strong winds… and minimal humidity,” the head of civil protection for Western Greece, Nikos Gyftakis, told public broadcaster ERT.
AFP journalists saw residents and firefighters backed by helicopters frantically attempt to douse flames in scrubland and forests outside Patras, with thick smoke reducing visibility.
Officials evacuated 12 children from a Patras hospital, Vathrakogiannis said. Eighty elderly people were removed from a retirement home, and local media footage showed the roof of a nearby 17th-century monastery ablaze.
Other fronts were burning on the popular Ionian tourist islands of Zante and Cephalonia and the Aegean island of Chios, scarred by a huge wildfire in June that ravaged more than 4,000 hectares.
Around 20 villages were evacuated in the western Achaia region on Tuesday, while the Greek coastguard said nearly 80 people were removed from Chios and near Patras.
Vathrakogiannis said 71 people had received medical care, mostly in the western town of Preveza and the Patras area.
After Greece requested four water bombers from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to bolster its resources, the main opposition PASOK Socialist party questioned the conservative government’s preparedness for fires that strike every year.
“A fully reformed civil protection system with an emphasis on prevention is required,” PASOK said, identifying a poor coordination of forces and a lack of local emergency plans that made firefighting “extremely challenging”.
Wildfires dominated the news in Spain, where flames have threatened a world heritage Roman mining site in the northwestern region of Castile and Leon.
