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Greece on high alert as wildfires burn out of control

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A fourth day of raging wildfires in Greece saw thousands of Athenians evacuated from their homes as flames approached the Greek capital.

The outlook is dire, with strong winds forecast that will fan the fires. Neighboring North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria and Turkey are also battling fires.

“Our country is facing an extremely critical situation,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a televised address on Thursday night, adding that the country had to strengthen its preparedness for severe weather brought on by climate change. The government’s response is being attacked by the opposition, which accuses it of mismanaging the disaster.

Thousands of Athenians had to evacuate their houses overnight in the capital’s northern suburbs as flareups regained strength on Thursday evening, while hundreds were evacuated by boat from Greece’s second largest island of Evia, near Athens. A 38-year old man was killed by a falling electricity pylon in the Athenian suburb of Ippokrateios Politeia. At least nine others have been treated in hospital. 

“Locals fought all night to save their fortunes, but in vain,” Giorgos Tsouparniotis, the mayor of Mantoudi, a town on Evia, told local TV, adding that more than 300 houses and about 45,000 hectares have been destroyed. “The battle was unequal, the fire burned everything in its path. In the evening we lived a nightmare, seeing people hanging from their roofs with the house already on fire and them not coming down … Those people were fighting alone to save whatever they could.”

Six of Greece’s 13 regions were placed on high alert Friday as firefighters battled more than 92 blazes. Forests are ablaze and hundreds of houses, cars and businesses have gone up in flames. Parts of the power grid have been damaged, and authorities are imposing power cuts to save energy. The choking smoke has given Athens some of the worst air in the world.

Helicopters and water bombers buzzed overhead; the military has also been brought in to fight the fires. Firefighters, planes and helicopters are already in the country or on the way from Cyprus, France, Sweden, Romania, Switzerland and Israel.

With the fires still active, the political fallout is starting to grow. Opposition parties argue that the winds and heat wave aren’t enough to explain why the fires are raging out of control. Local authorities in Evia and the Peloponnese are also complaining about a lack of resources to tackle the blazes. 

“They have brought 1,000 policemen here that do nothing, I need firefighters to save the village,” said Konstantinos Anyfantis, the deputy mayor of Afidnes, east of Athens.

Mitsotakis said the authorities are prioritizing saving lives and admitted that it is “simply impossible” to prevent damage to properties and forests, while also protecting people. 

“There will be time for criticism and self-criticism, but not now,” he said.

The government issued a decree on Thursday prohibiting people from entering forests at least until Monday, with fines as high as €10,000 

Justice Minister Kostas Tsiaras warned that arson will be treated as a felony and anyone convicted faces up to five years in prison.

“The environmental damage caused by forest arson is for the first time explicitly standardized as a crime and the perpetrators will be punished with imprisonment,” he tweeted.

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