Rescuers in Greece find 18 burned bodies as wildfires spread (updated)
22/08/2023 09:20
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Bodies thought to be those of migrants
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Hospital patients evacuated onto ferry
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European nations sending firefighting help
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Smoke from northeast reaches northwestern Ionian islands
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Southern Europe hit by new heatwave
(Add migration minister comment in paragraph 7)
By Alexandros Avramidis and Alkis Konstantinidis
ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Eighteen
burned bodies, possibly migrants, were found on Tuesday in a
rural area in northern Greece where wildfires were burning out
of control for a fourth day, authorities said, as gale force
winds fanned blazes across the country.
In the nearby port town of Alexandroupolis, dozens of
hospital patients were evacuated onto a ferry earlier on
Tuesday, while a blaze on the foothills of Mount Parnitha on the
outskirts of Athens sent thick clouds of smoke over the capital.
The bodies were found near the sprawling Dadia forest in the
northeastern Evros region, a popular route for migrants from the
Middle East and Asia crossing the river from Turkey into the
European Union. An uptick in crossings was reported this month.
The fire brigade said authorities were investigating the
possibility that the bodies were of migrants who entered the
country illegally because no residents in the area had been
reported missing.
The government expressed its "deepest sorrow" over the
deaths, its spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. "Unfortunately,
their stay in the forest of Dadia proved fatal," he said.
Another body thought to belong to a migrant was found on
Monday in a rural area some 40 km (25 miles) away.
Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis said "tragedy confirms,
once more, the dangers of irregular migration," and accused
smuggling rings of putting migrants' lives at risk.
In the nearby village of Avantas, fires swept through a
number of homes overnight.
"It has reached the entire village," said Alexandros
Chrisoulidis, a 19-year-old Avantas resident. "Our own house up
there, where the fire started, has completely burned down. There
is nothing."
A 23-year-old resident who gave his name as Nikos said: "The
situation is tragic. All that is needed right now are prayers
and rain."
A satellite image broadcast on state television showed that
smoke from the Evros fires had drifted across the country to the
Ionian islands in the northwest, not far from Italy.
Fires near Athens in the southeast burned homes and cars and
forced residents to flee on foot. Some covered their faces with
their clothes as smoke thickened the air.
Volunteers loaded sheep in the trunks of cars to save them
from the flames, while another man tried to rescue a horse.
"The winds are very strong ... It is a very difficult
firefighting task. God help us," said Sotiris Masouris, a
50-year-old resident of Hasia, west of Athens.
In the industrial town of Aspropyrgos near Athens, factories
were destroyed as a blaze burned unabated.
Southern Europe has been hit by a new heatwave with
temperatures reaching or exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104
degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts. Fires were also burning in
Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Summer wildfires in Greece are common but have been
exacerbated in recent years by unusually hot, dry and windy
conditions that scientists have linked to climate change.
More than 20,000 foreign tourists were evacuated from
resorts on the Aegean holiday island of Rhodes in July as
wildfires burned for a week, destroying homes and hotels.
HOSPITAL EVACUATED
Dozens of hospital patients, including newborn babies, were
evacuated on Tuesday onto a ferry as hundreds of firefighters
struggled to contain the blaze that broke out on Saturday near
Alexandroupolis.
It spread quickly, fanned by high winds, sending plumes of
smoke above the port city and turning the night sky red.
By early Tuesday, authorities said 65 patients at the
University Hospital of Alexandroupolis had been evacuated as a
precaution onto a ferry in the port.
The ferry was turned into a makeshift hospital. Elderly
patients lay on mattresses on the cafeteria floor, paramedics
attended to others on stretchers and a woman held a man resting
on a sofa, an IV drip attached to his hand.
"I've been working for 27 years, I've never seen anything
like this," said nurse Nikos Gioktsidis. "Stretchers everywhere,
patients here, IV drips there ... it was like a war, like a bomb
had exploded."
The ferry later sailed to the nearby port of Kavala, state
broadcaster ERT said.
Overnight, as flames approached another clinic at the
premises of the Alexandroupolis Metropolitan Church Foundation,
staff carried a man on a wheelchair to an ambulance, while
others were evacuated on stretchers.
Father Christodoulos Karathanasis, director of the Holy
Metropolis of Alexandroupolis, said 200 patients from both
facilities had been evacuated in just over four hours.
Fire brigade spokesperson Ioanis Artopios said the risk of
fire remained high in the coming days.
Fifty-six firefighters arrived in Greece from Romania on
Tuesday and Athens was expecting further assistance from the
Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany and Sweden with 64 more
firefighters, 19 fire engines, seven planes and one helicopter,
the fire brigade said.
(Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris, Lefteris Papadimas,
Stamos Prousalis in Athens; writing by Karolina Tagaris; editing
by Janet Lawrence, Conor Humphries, Mark Heinrich and David
Gregorio)
((mailto:karolina.tagaris@thomsonreuters.com; +30 210 3376
455;))