Avgaria: Volunteers and firefighters work without stopping on Tuesday, often without masks or helmets, in a desperate effort to stop loud flames from reaching the main city on Evia Greece Island, one of hundreds of fires that have raged in the country .
Nearly 900 firefighters, reinforced with new arrivals from abroad, deployed on the second largest island in the country because of the big cities and resorts remained under threat from burning fire for eight days.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a package of 500 million euros ($ 586 million) in emergency assistance to those affected by what he dubbed “natural anger without precedents”, and for the reconstruction of the destroyed area.
The weather disaster surrounded by climate change has swept the world this summer, with the assessment of UN landmarks published Monday warned the world even faster than estimates.
Hundreds of homes have been lost in Evia, a larger Athens, Peloponnese and other parts of Greece to Wildfires since the end of July, because the area suffered through intense heataves.
Underlining the swing of violence from Fortune torturing Greece, the fire at Peloponnese flared up just one hour after the official said the situation was stabilizing.
Residents in 20 small villages in the Gortynia area were warned to be evacuated on Tuesday, with the mayor, said his condition seemed uncontrollable.
“In the blink of an eye, all controls are lost,” said Mayor Efstathios Soulis to State TV ERT, added that dozens of villages, agricultural units and risky businesses.
The fire has claimed three lives in Greece, while in Turkish neighbors eight have been killed eight.
Some people hurt, some critical.
Sixteen people have been arrested for suspicion of burning or negligible combustion, police said.
Most of the attention focused on Tuesday to maintain a fire from the center of northern Evia from Istiaia, which has 7,000 people who have not displaced.
Firefighters and volunteers have been involved overnight in the “hand-to-hand, fighting and soul” battle to establish a fire outside the neighboring village Istiaia, said Mayor Yiannis Konzias.
Locals, often only in shirts, struggling against fire in several fronts, one of them rose out of control.
The Evia Force included hundreds of firefighters from Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.
They were strengthened on Tuesday with units from Cyprus, Slovakia and Poland, said the civil protection authority.
This rough island is popular among tourists and many Greeks have a summer home at Evia.
About 3,000 people were evacuated by sea last week when the flame approached.
Authorities ordered Asiminio’s evacuation, a coastal village near Istiia was also threatened with fire, on Tuesday.
“Where do you want us to leave?,” A sixties old woman shouted, refusing to go as a helicopter to fly forward.
On the streets, dozens of residents pointed to anger at Slovak fire trucks.
“Listen, they do all work.
Where are we? We begged them to come and no one came,” Dimitri said.
In the village of Avgaria, many people turned out to help professionals.
“If we don’t come, who will?” Yiannis asked, a sturdy man in his 20s.
“My aunt’s house caught fire, that my grandfather almost did it too.” The fire has also dropped catastrophe in the island agricultural economy which includes olives, fig and honey, leaving many sad producers.
Istiaa Mayor Kontuzias said “Mistakes are made and we need to draw lessons from this”.
“The Greek state may not forget what happened in North Evia,” he added.
“Helicopters help a lot and if we have done it from the start, we will avoid all this destruction.” He echoed the complaint that was widely heard about the lack of air support not only at Evia but throughout Greece.
Many mayors throughout the country have complained of a lack of air support in fighting fires, even though there is a guarantee of the government to set aside sufficient resources.
“Every hometown is a tragedy, a dagger to heart,” Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias said Tuesday, his voice violated.
In the address broadcast on television on Monday, Mitsotakis apologizes “for any shortage” in the state response.
“We may have done what is possible humanely, but in many cases it is not enough.” UE countries and other countries have so far contributed 21 aircraft, 250 vehicles and more than 1,200 firefighters, some of which will arrive on Friday.