Greek plane crash while fighting forest fires

A water bomber with “no less than two people” on board crashed on Tuesday while it was fighting a forest fire in the south of the Greek island of Evia, according to what was learned by Agence France-Presse from the spokesman for the fire brigade, Yannis Artobios.

Artobios confirmed that “a Greek Kander plane with at least two people on board crashed near the village of Platanisto” on the island of Evia.

Wildfires

Meanwhile, Greece has been witnessing a wave of heat and massive fires for more than ten days.

In the Greek capital, the temperature is expected to reach 41 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, and 44 degrees in the center of the country, according to the Meteorological Authority.

“Fighting fires will always remain difficult because we are living through the repercussions of the climate crisis,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, on Tuesday, during a ministerial meeting, the beginning of which was broadcast live on the public television channel “ERT,” adding, “We have a difficult summer ahead.”

heatwave

And meteorologists confirmed that Greece is witnessing one of the longest waves of heat in recent years, although the temperature remains below its historical record level (48 degrees).

And the Gietho region in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece recorded a temperature of 46.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

The Greek authorities raised the alert level in several regions of the country to “red” on Tuesday, which means a “grave danger” of forest fires.

Wildfires

The high temperatures and strong winds, which sometimes reached 60 kilometers per hour in the Aegean Sea, caused massive fires that have been going on for eight days.

Some 35,000 hectares of forested areas have been destroyed so far in Greece, according to estimates by the Greek branch of the NGO WWF.

The fires swept through islands that are popular tourist destinations, such as the island of Rhodes off the Turkish coast, and the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, in light of a tourist season full of hotel reservations.