In a fiery turn of events, wildfires fueled by fierce winds rampaged through parts of Greece and the Balkans on Tuesday, setting forests and homes ablaze, and to forced evacuation.
With temperatures soaring and dry conditions persisting over the past month, the region has become a tinderbox, primed for wildfires. Scientists have pointed to these unusually high temperatures as the perfect recipe for disaster.
The flames, relentless and unforgiving, devoured pine trees surrounding a hotel complex in Shengjin, an idyllic Albanian coastal town. Authorities quickly evacuated residents as the fire advanced. Meanwhile, in North Macedonia, a blaze near the Greek border razed five houses, prompting further evacuations. Locals described scenes of chaos as electricity and phone services were cut, plunging the area into a communications blackout.
The devastation didn’t stop there. Further north, on Monday, another inferno reduced dozens of buildings to ashes and claimed a man’s life. “We have many fires. Thousands of hectares have caught fire. Half of the country is in flames,” lamented Goran Stojanovski, an official from North Macedonia’s crisis management department, adding that strong winds were thwarting firefighters’ efforts.
In Croatia, around 450 hectares (1,100 acres) of pine forest near the Adriatic coastal town of Sibenik were consumed by flames, a local fire official revealed. The firefighting efforts in Bulgaria took a perilous turn when a wildfire in the Slavyanka mountains, near the Greek border, triggered the detonation of Cold War-era landmines, forcing firefighters to retreat, local media Nova TV reported.
Amidst this fiery chaos, more than 200 firefighters, supported by helicopters and water-carrying planes, successfully contained a wildfire on Greece’s second-largest island, Evia. Authorities ordered the evacuation of two villages as a precaution. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged the severity of the situation, stating, “We still have a very difficult month, August, ahead of us and obviously we all need to be on high alert,” during a cabinet meeting.
Wildfires in Greece have become a recurrent nightmare in recent years, with increasingly hot and dry summers linked to climate change. Last year alone saw over 8,000 blazes, according to fire brigade data. This summer has been particularly brutal, with hundreds of wildfires igniting since May during what was the hottest June on record and the longest heatwave in the country’s history.
As the flames continue to rage and temperatures show no sign of cooling, the people of Greece and the Balkans brace themselves for what seems to be an unending battle against nature’s fury.
(Source: Euronews | Associated Press)
