Wildfires bring death and destruction to sun-scorched Mediterranean
Rhodes, Greece/Algiers, AlgeriaReuters A plane fighting wildfires in Greece crashed killing two airmen on Tuesday, as large areas of the Mediterranean sweltered under an intense summer heatwave and Algeria battled to control an inferno in which at least 34 people have died. The plane, which had been dropping water, came down on a hillside close […]
Greece’s fire-ravaged island now racing to build flood defences
Limni, GreeceReuters In a scorched landscape on the Greek island of Evia, crews of workers chop burnt pine trees, all that’s left from devastating summer wildfires, to set up wooden flood barriers. Walking on a thick carpet of ash and with the smell of smoke still lingering, they are racing against time to bolster defences […]
Tears and anger as Greek island residents face wildfire aftermath
Rovies, Evia, GreeceReuters Residents of the Greek seaside village of Rovies mourn a lost paradise of pristine pine forests and family homes, scorched by wildfires that burned for nine days. But they are also angry as they start to see how little was salvaged. Burnt hillsides are seen following a wildfire near the village of […]
PM apologises as Greece counts costs of wildfire catastrophe
Pefki, GreeceReuters Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologised on Monday for failures in tackling the devastating wildfires that have burned across Greece for the past week as the country counted the cost in lost homes and livelihoods. As fires burned unabated in many parts of the country for a seventh day, the biggest front was […]
Blaze ravages Evia island “like a horror movie” on sixth day of Greek fires
Pefki, GreeceReuters Thousands of people have fled their homes on the Greek island of Evia as wildfires burned uncontrolled for a sixth day on Sunday, and ferries were on standby for more evacuations after taking many to safety by sea. The blaze on Evia, Greece’s second-biggest island, quickly burgeoned into several fronts, ripping through thousands […]
Greece battles wildfires for fifth day in “nightmarish summer”
Athens, GreeceReuters Fires blazed uncontrolled for a fifth day in Greece on Saturday, ravaging swathes of land on its second-biggest island of Evia where hundreds of people had to be evacuated by ferry and locals joined firefighters in battling the flames. A fire which began on Tuesday on the island east of Athens quickly burgeoned […]