The forest fires are raging around Athens and elsewhere in Europe – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

– It spreads with the speed of lightning, says fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis to Reuters. Throughout the night, the forest fire around Athens has consumed trees, houses and cars. According to the agency, hundreds of firefighters, 16 aircraft with water cannons and 13 helicopters worked to extinguish the flames. The village of Varnavas, just outside Athens, was surrounded by flames on Monday night. An aunt and a niece embrace each other in Penteli, Greece. Photo: Stelios Misinas / Reuters In some places the flames will be 25 meters high. Now the inhabitants of the Greek capital are also being evacuated, writes the BBC. This applies, among other things, to three hospitals in the area around the mountain Pentelikon. The historic small town of Marathon close to the capital is also being evacuated. – Everything is burning, says one of the evacuees from the village of Polydendri to the BBC. – Everything is on fire According to the channel, 40 fires have broken out in Greece since Saturday afternoon. Both June and July were record warm in the country. It is strong wind that makes the fires difficult to control, according to spokesperson Vathrakogiannis in the fire service. There have been several heat waves in Europe this summer. In Greece it has been well over 40 degrees at times. There are also forest fires in Spain, Montenegro, Turkey, Italy, Bosnia and Albania. Your browser does not support the embedding of external content The EU announced in May that this summer they have a team consisting of 556 firefighters from 12 countries stationed in countries in southern Europe where the risk of forest fires is high. Early in the forest fire season 2023 was a “record year” for severe forest fires in Europe, and the hottest year on record. Senior researcher Johannes Kaiser at the environmental research institute Nilu says that so far this summer it has been calm in southern Europe. Recently, however, there have been several forest fires in Greece. – It remains to be seen whether it will be a fierce forest fire season or not. There have been some heavy fires in recent days, he says to news. He says forest fires are often a natural part of an ecosystem, and can be healthy for nature. In the last ten years, however, the forest fires have been more powerful, and there have been more powerful fires than in the past. The village of Varnavas was surrounded by flames and the residents evacuated. Photo: Hilary Swift / Reuters – It is clear that it is connected with climate change. It is connected with increasing drought. So that is one of the ways we have to adapt to climate change. We must keep a closer eye on the forests, and make sure that there is not too much dry material that can keep the flames alive. Published 12.08.2024, at 12.36 p.m



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