A total of 96 wildfires are burning in Greece on Friday (Greece time), with 51 of them breaking out in the last 24 hours, said the Fire Brigade in an announcement.
It added that of the 51, most were put out very quickly.
The Fire Brigade provided an update on Friday evening (Greece time) on the major fires that have been ravaging the country throughout the week. All of them but two have subsided, on the island of Rhodes and in northeastern Achaia prefecture. Strong firefighting forces remain on the ground in both locations, while water bombers doused specific spots periodically during daylight hours, it was noted.
Considerable ground forces are also trying to put out rekindled fires in northeastern Corfu, assisted by 4 water bombers and 2 helicopters.
Meanwhile, at a briefing earlier on Friday, Climate Crisis & Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias had noted that “Friday was the first day in 15 days when the fire risk factor dropped below the highest alert level of red.”
More than 600 fires occurred during the latter ten of those days. Of these 600, 10 fires were major, Kikilias added, burning while Greece experienced “extreme climate phenomena, a relentless heatwave, a sever drought, and high winds.”
At that briefing, Kikilias had responded to a question by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) that an assessment of the preventative measures and possible changes to them will be carried out after the current fire season is over.
Source: AMNA
