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Greek firefighters beat back wildfires / Photo: Aris MESSINIS - AFP
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Greek firefighters beat back wildfires
Greek firefighters gained ground Thursday against a wildfire outside the third-largest city of Patras, while planes bombed water on blazes on three other fronts.
Firefighters faced "scattered" pockets of flames around Patras, Greece's main port to Italy, after an overnight struggle, fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said.
The fire close was "still active" however in the eastern outskirts of the city of 250,000, he said.
Citing data from the EU's Copernicus satellite monitoring programme, the Athens national observatory said fires in the Patras area, the Aegean island of Chios, the Ionian island of Zakynthos and near the western city of Preveza had burned over 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of forest and agricultural land.
Authorities said three men aged 19 to 27 had been detained on suspicion of starting some of the fires around Patras on Tuesday.
"There are clear signs and even proof of malicious activity that led to these fires," Civil Protection Minister Giannis Kefalogiannis told a news briefing.
He added that fire services had been called to an average of 70 blazes daily, up from an average of around 40.
Officials on Wednesday evacuated a children's hospital and a retirement home as the fire moved close to Patras.
The ambulance service said over 70 people, including several firefighters, had been treated for minor burns and respiratory problems, many of them in the Patras area.
Many of the stricken areas remained without water or electricity on Thursday.
Patras' communist Mayor Kostas Peletidis this week criticised the government for not sending enough aerial support.
Kefalogiannis, of the ruling conservative party, hit back Thursday claiming that the mayor had encouraged citizens to ignore evacuation orders.
Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos, a forestry professor at Thessaloniki's Aristotle University, said forest fires in Greece now regularly threaten urban areas.
"We have seen it in (the greater Athens area) since 2021, now in Patras," he told state TV ERT.
Other important fires continued to burn on the islands of Zakynthos and Chios and near Preveza. Some 600 emergency crew and nearly 30 water bombing aircraft were deployed in all locations.
Greece this summer has faced several major forest fires amid high temperatures which scientists say human-induced climate change is intensifying.
A.Lavoie--SMC
