A fire on the island of Lesbos has led to the evacuation of tourists and residents

The fire caused thick clouds of smoke, blocking the sun’s rays as fires blazed a few meters from the homes, forcing residents to flee while others tried to protect their homes.

The Greece Facing the first day of the wave the heat It is expected to last ten days, and temperatures are expected to reach 42 degrees Celsius in some areas, raising fears of more fires. According to Greek firefighters, there were 53 fires in 24 hours.

The fire broke out near Vatira at 10:00 am local time and spread to this coastal village and the nearby town of Frisa. In Vatera, whose city council ordered a preemptive evacuation in the morning, 450 people left two hotels and 92 homes according to police, after nine people were evacuated from the beach, including five foreigners.

Firefighters deployed on Saturday evening

Several cars and small boats took part in the operation, according to the city council. The fire destroyed at least two homes, according to state-run ERT television. Firefighters remained deployed on Saturday evening. Greek firefighters also continued to fight for the third day in a row against a violent fire in Dadia National Park, the largest Natura 2000 site in Greece, known as the Eagle Colony, in the Evros region, in the northeast.

Firefighters estimated that the blaze was “extremely difficult” as it approached the village of Dadia early in the evening, the firefighting team confirmed. A total of 320 Firefighter A total of 68 vehicles have been deployed since Friday evening, including a very large number of volunteer firefighters, backed by six water launcher helicopters and nine other helicopters.

However, heavy smoke and lack of wind, as well as high nightly humidity from Friday to Saturday, hampered aerial firefighting work.

extreme weather phenomena

A bushfire in the mountains near Athens on Wednesday destroyed homes and forced several hundred to flee, just a few miles from the coastal village of Mati, which was the scene of Greece’s worst forest fire disaster of 2018. There were 102 deaths. A party was also organized to commemorate Saturday in Mati. In the Peloponnese, a new fire broke out on Saturday near Koroni and had to evacuate the nearby village of Chrysokelaria early in the evening.

Spread meteorological phenomena The extremes are a direct result of global warming according to scientists, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing in terms of intensity, duration and frequency. Last year, a heat wave and wildfires destroyed 103,000 hectares and killed three people in Greece.