A forest fire is currently raging in the area of Mavros Kolymbos, Lasithi, Crete, with the Fire Department reporting that the blaze broke out shortly before 7am Saturday in a forest area near the village of Mavros Kolymbos.
Strong winds of 7 to 8 Beaufort are fueling the fire, making containment efforts challenging, AMNA reported.
Authorities have issued a warning via the emergency number 112, urging residents of Mavros Kolymbos, Achlia, Agia Fotia, and Galini to evacuate their villages and head towards Koutsouras due to the ongoing forest fire.
The message stressed the importance of following the authorities’ instructions to ensure safety.
Seventy-two firefighters, supported by four teams on foot, 24 vehicles, and two helicopters, are working tirelessly to extinguish the flames in Mavros Kolymbos.
Two more fires broke out in the wider area of Ierapetra, specifically in the Males area and in Amoudares, near a greenhouse.
Fortunately, these fires have been brought under control, according to the Fire Department.
One resident of Mavros Kolymbos has been injured and hospitalised with burns and breathing problems.
The 74-year-old man initially left the village after receiving the emergency message but later returned.
Greece was again at the center of Europe’s fire season last summer with the worst fire in European Union records. Fires burned an estimated 1,750 square kilometers (675 square miles) last year.
To cope with the crisis, Greece is fast-tracking a 2.1 billion euro ($2.3 billion) program to upgrade its fleet of water tankers and create an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect smoke in the early stages of a fire. But delivery of the new equipment won’t start until next year, leaving planners to scramble to find alternatives to cut response times.
In 2027, Greece is set to receive seven new Canadian-built DHC-515 firefighting aircraft as part of a larger European Union order by six member states.
As part of preparing for an early fire season, Attica Council held a drill at a 12th-century monastery near Athens, where a fast-approaching wildfire threatens to trap clergy and a group of people attending a baptism.
Volunteers and firefighters race to pull them to safety through clouds of red smoke, as a drone buzzing overhead sends live video of the rescue to a national coordination center.
The exercise, held on Thursday, and multiple drills planned this month have taken on added urgency ahead of the fire season that officially starts May 1 as temperatures touched 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in late March and early April, and wildfires have been breaking out weeks earlier than expected.
“Due to climate change, conditions have changed. Everything in nature is dry now, and it’s very easy to catch fire. So we have to be ready to deal with it,” said Loukia Kefalogianni, the deputy regional government of the capital’s North Attica region.
In the short term while waiting for fire-fighting fleet deliveries, Greek authorities are betting on a host of preventive measures, a more flexible administration, better inter-agency cooperation including local governments and the military, and many more practice runs before scorching summer months arrive.
“Exercises like this one today are very, very helpful because all the agencies communicate with each other and work together to get better results on a larger scale,” said Christos Symiakakis, a deputy fire chief for the Attica region.
