Wildfires burning on Greek island Corfu, Skopelos and Halkidiki peninsula
A fire on the picturesque Ionian island of Corfu has devastated some 130 hectares (320 acres) of pine forest and olive groves, the island’s mayor said on Thursday, blaming arsonists. Pockets of fire that started in 19 different locations on Tuesday left no doubt that arsonists were at work.
The blaze raced across a 40-kilometre (25 miles) front in the island’s northeast on Tuesday night, nearing inhabited areas but without threatening the island’s extensive tourist resorts. The fire department on Thursday said most of the fronts had been checked with the assistance of water bombers and a helicopter. Scores of fires break out in Greece every summer, aided by high temperatures and strong winds and frequently attributed to arson, though the perpetrators are rarely caught.
In 2007, a wave of wildfires killed 77 people and destroyed over 250,000 hectares of land, mainly in the Peloponnese and the island of Evia.
In 2009, hundreds of people were evacuated near Athens owing to another wildfire in the capital’s eastern suburbs. (TerraDaily)
If you value what we do here, open your ad-free account and support our journalism.
Producing content you read on this website takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work. If you value what we do here, select the level of your support and register your account.
Your support makes this project fully self-sustainable and keeps us independent and focused on the content we love to create and share.
All our supporters can browse the website without ads, allowing much faster speeds and a clean interface. Your comments will be instantly approved and you’ll have a direct line of communication with us from within your account dashboard. You can suggest new features and apps and you’ll be able to use them before they go live.
You can choose the level of your support.
Stay kind, vigilant and ready!
You can also support us by sending us a one-off payment using PayPal:
