On the Greek island of Lesbos, which is close to Turkey, a wildfire broke out in hilly forests on Saturday, destroying homes in Vatera Beach Resort as additional planes joined the firefighting effort.
The Aegean coastal resort was already ordered to be evacuated as the flame grew dangerously close and was fanned by strong winds.
There was a lot of smoke billowing about. One evacuee said that her home was on fire to state television ERT.
Taxiarchis Verros, the mayor of western Lesbos, told the station, “We are fighting to rescue homes.”
A well-liked tourist destination is Vatera, an 8 km (five miles) long sandy beach in the southern region of Lesbos. Six years ago, Lesbos was in the vanguard of Europe’s refugee crisis.
As the fire overtook Vatera, it damaged a beach bar and set sun umbrellas on fire in addition to causing home fires and injuring one fireman.
This year, Greece is experiencing a second summer of wildfires.
Authorities are describing this summer as one of the harshest in the Mediterranean after a wildfire burned homes and caused hundreds of people to escape this week in the highlands near Athens.
During the country’s worst heatwave in thirty years last year, wildfires devastated roughly 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland throughout Greece.
Post Your Comments