Fires of "biblical catastrophe" continue to burn through Greek forests, forcing the evacuations of thousands of people as a political storm brews in Turkey over the worst wildfires in recent history. Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country's second-largest island, isolating its northern part.
Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as “a biblical catastrophe.” Firefighters fought through the night to save Istiaia, a town of 7,000 in northern Evia, as well as several villages, using bulldozers to open up clear paths in the thick forest. Overnight, the coast guard and ferries evacuated 83 people from beaches in northern Evia, after a massive operation Friday night that plucked more than 1,000 people from beaches and a seaside village as flames raged on the hills behind them. Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said on Sunday the Evia fire was burning on two fronts, one to the north and one to the south.
"We have before us one more difficult afternoon, one more difficult night," Hardalias said. "All the forces that have been fighting a difficult battle all these days will continue operating with unabated intensity, with the same self-sacrifice." Fire brigade officials also announced that a water bomber plane crashed on Sunday afternoon while operating on the island of Zakynthos. The pilot was unharmed. The Petzetel aircraft was extinguishing a small fire on the Ionian island, west of the Greek mainland, when it crashed for an undetermined reason, they said.
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