Keystone-SDA
Firefighters in Greece managed Thursday to circumscribe a large forest fire which threatened Patras, the third largest city in the country. However, water bombers continue to combat fires on three other fronts.
(Keystone-ATS) The situation in Patras (west), the main Greek port to Italy, has improved a lot after a fight against the flames overnight, said firefighter spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis on television.
In Patras, the firefighters were now facing “scattered” homes, but the fire was “still active” in the east suburbs of the city with more than 200,000 inhabitants, he said.
Police announced Thursday that they had arrested a 25 -year -old man, suspected of having triggered one of the fires near Patras. The Conservative government has decided, since 2024, to tighten the sanctions against fire perpetrators who can be sentenced to sentences of up to 20 years in prison and to a fine of up to 200,000 euros (188,433 Swiss francs).
On Wednesday, a children’s hospital and a retirement home had been evacuated while the fire had dangerously close to the city. The fire had arrived the day before the suburbs of Patras and ravaged a pound, destroying more than 500 vehicles.
Urban areas affected
According to Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos, professor of forestry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, forest fires in Greece now regularly affect urban areas.
“We have seen it in the great region of Athens since 2021, now it’s in Patras,” he said on the public television channel Ert.
Other important fires raged Thursday on the Ionian island of Zante (west), the Aegean island of Chios (East) and near the western city of Pressveza, said the spokesman.
By citing data from the European Copernicus satellite surveillance program, the Athens Observatory said Thursday that ongoing fires in the Patras region, on the Aegean Island of Chios, on the Ionian island of Zante and near the city of PREVEZA (West) had consumed more than 10,000 hectares.
About 600 teams on the ground and nearly 30 water bombers were deployed at dawn on all sites. The decrease in the intensity of the wind has favored efforts to fight fire.
Greece has known several large forest fires since June having destroyed more than 20,000 hectares. The lights have been favored by very high temperatures, which scientists attribute to the aggravation of climate change induced by man