Firefighters Race to Contain Wildfires in Greece as Thousands Evacuated, Elderly Man Dies in Turkey
More than 5,000 tourists, hotel workers, and residents were evacuated from the Ierapetra area along Crete's southern coast, authorities and hotel association officials said. A small number of people fled into the sea and were rescued by local fishermen and divers. Ierapetra Mayor Manolis Frangoulis said firefighters were working to prevent flare-ups before nightfall, when water-dropping helicopters are grounded. 'The fire has receded a little, but if the wind hits the flames again, we'll have new fires and the catastrophe will continue,' he said. Several homes and businesses were damaged. Volunteers found dead farm animals, some burned alive while chained inside sheds. Displaced tourists were relocated to other hotels or spent the night in an indoor basketball stadium.
Separately Thursday, authorities ordered precautionary evacuations due to a wildfire near the port of Rafina, about 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) east of Athens.
In western Turkey, firefighters discovered the body of an 81-year-old man after extinguishing a blaze near a village, marking the first fatality in a series of wildfires that have forced thousands to flee. Officials said the man died from smoke inhalation near the town of Odemis. A total of 37 other villagers were safely evacuated by security forces and emergency teams. Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters supported by aircraft and helicopters were deployed to battle a wildfire near the Aegean coastal town of Cesme, a popular vacation destination about 190 kilometers (120 miles) west of Odemis. That fire, which began Wednesday, forced the evacuation of three neighborhoods and led to road closures. Television footage showed flames racing through dry vegetation on both sides of a highway.
Over the past week, Turkey has battled hundreds of wildfires fueled by strong winds, extreme heat, and low humidity. Now mostly under control, the blazes have damaged or destroyed about 200 homes. Summer wildfires are common in both Greece and Turkey, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions. Late Wednesday, Turkey's parliament adopted a landmark climate law targeting net-zero emissions by 2053. The legislation includes measures to establish a carbon market board to oversee efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The law comes at a time when Turkey is increasingly grappling with issues related to climate change, from searing heat waves to prolonged droughts, experts say. 'As a Mediterranean country, Turkey is highly vulnerable to climate change,' said Gizem Koc, a lawyer with the UK-based environmental advocacy group ClientEarth. 'The most striking vulnerability is the drought and water stress in some regions, but also there is increasing frequency of floods and other extreme weather events.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
250 Flee as Turkish Rescuers Battle Wildfire in Gallipoli
More than 250 people were evacuated overnight as a wildfire raged on the Gallipoli peninsula flanking the Dardanelles Strait, where Turkish firefighters were battling Sunday to quench the blaze, officials said. The fire began on Saturday in the northwestern province of Canakkale, and spread quickly due to high winds in the hills near the town of Gelibolu, on the shores of the busy shipping strait. "As a precaution, 251 residents from five villages were relocated to safe areas," Canakkale governor Omer Toraman wrote on X. Footage showed the hillsides illuminated by bright flames while huge clouds of smoke poured into the night air. Toraman said the province, a popular destination for tourists visiting the ancient ruins of Troy, as well as the Gallipoli battleground where thousands of soldiers died in World War I, had suffered "extremely severe drought" over the past year. While the weather has been fairly normal for the time of year, much of northwestern Türkiye has suffered strong winds in recent days, although they eased off on Sunday. Firefighters worked through the night, with 12 planes and 18 helicopters rejoining the efforts at first light in an operation involving 900 people, the forestry directorate said on X. The authority in charge of the war memorials said on X that access to historical sites near the town of Eceabat had been closed "due to the ongoing forest fire". On Monday, another fire on the other side of the strait forced 2,000 people to flee, with around 80 treated for smoke inhalation. Several days earlier, another fire forced the evacuation of 120 people and the suspension of shipping through the Dardanelles Strait, which links the Mediterranean with the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 192 wildfires in Türkiye this year, which have ravaged more than 110,373 hectares (273,000 acres) of land. Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Türkiye to take measures to tackle the problem.
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Al Arabiya
At least 250 flee as Turkish rescuers battle wildfire in Gallipoli
More than 250 people were evacuated overnight as a wildfire raged on the Gallipoli peninsula flanking the Dardanelles Strait, where Turkish firefighters were battling Sunday to quench the blaze, officials said. The fire began on Saturday in the northwestern province of Canakkale, and spread quickly due to high winds in the hills near the town of Gelibolu, on the shores of the busy shipping strait. 'As a precaution, 251 residents from five villages were relocated to safe areas,' Canakkale governor Omer Toraman wrote on X. Footage showed the hillsides illuminated by bright flames while huge clouds of smoke poured into the night air. Toraman said the province, a popular destination for tourists visiting the ancient ruins of Troy, as well as the Gallipoli battleground where thousands of soldiers died in World War I, had suffered 'extremely severe drought' over the past year. While the weather has been fairly normal for the time of year, much of northwestern Turkey has suffered strong winds in recent days, although they eased off on Sunday. Firefighters worked through the night, with 12 planes and 18 helicopters rejoining the efforts at first light in an operation involving 900 people, the forestry directorate said on X. The authority in charge of the war memorials said on X that access to historical sites near the town of Eceabat had been closed 'due to the ongoing forest fire.' On Monday, another fire on the other side of the strait forced 2,000 people to flee, with around 80 treated for smoke inhalation. Several days earlier, another fire forced the evacuation of 120 people and the suspension of shipping through the Dardanelles Strait, which links the Mediterranean with the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 192 wildfires in Turkey this year, which have ravaged more than 110,373 hectares (273,000 acres) of land. Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkey to take measures to tackle the problem.
Arab News
6 days ago
- Arab News
Pro-Palestinian tourist ship protests irk Greek govt
PIRAEUS: A series of pro-Palestinian protests targeting an Israeli cruise ship around Greece have irritated a conservative government walking a diplomatic tightrope with Middle Eastern powers during the Gaza war. At the crack of dawn on Thursday at the port of Piraeus outside Athens, dozens of riot police armed with truncheons, tear gas and shields sealed up a cruise terminal from hundreds of demonstrators. Their ire was directed at the 'Crown Iris,' a hulking Israeli tourist ship that has attracted protests at each of its stops in the country since last month. Tourism is a pillar of the Greek economy, but pro-Palestinian activists say the visitors 'whitewash' Israel's devastating war in Gaza that was sparked by the unprecedented 2023 Hamas attack. According to the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), a communist-affiliated union that called the rally, the Crown Iris was carrying Israeli soldiers. 'We cannot tolerate people who have contributed to the genocide of the Palestinian people moving among us,' protester Yorgos Michailidis told AFP in Piraeus. 'We want people everywhere to see that we don't only care about tourism and the money they bring,' the 43-year-old teacher said. For Katerina Patrikiou, a 48-year-old hospital worker, the visitors 'are not tourists — they are the slaughterers of children and civilians in Gaza.' Ties with Israel Greece traditionally maintained a pro-Arab foreign policy, but governments of different political stripes have in recent years woven closer ties with Israel in defense, security and energy. Athens has carefully tried to protect both relations during the war, accusing the left-wing opposition of undermining the strategic Israel alliance aimed at counterbalancing the influence of historic rival Turkiye in the eastern Mediterranean. 'The useful idiots for Turkiye have been in our ports, where their extreme actions seriously damage Greece's image in Israel,' Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis wrote on X last month. 'We must protect this alliance as the apple of our eye and isolate these fools... Those who exhibit antisemitic behavior act against Greece's interests.' Before joining the ruling conservative party in 2012, Georgiadis was a prominent member of far-right party Laos, which had a history of anti-Semitic statements. When first named health minister a year later, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had urged the government to reconsider, noting that Georgiadis had made 'troubling remarks' about Jewish people and had promoted an anti-Semitic book. In 2017, he publicly apologized for having 'coexisted with and tolerated the opinions of people who showed disrespect to my Jewish compatriots.' Several protests each rallying hundreds of people attempted to prevent the Crown Iris from docking at Mediterranean islands including Rhodes, Crete and Syros last month, with occasional scuffles between demonstrators and police. According to The Times of Israel, the ship's owners decided to skip Syros after 200 people protested as the vessel approached. Israel's ambassador to Greece, Noam Katz, condemned an 'attempt to harm the strong relations between our peoples, and to intimidate Israeli tourists' in Syros. Greece's Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis has said that anyone who 'prevents a citizen of a third country from visiting our country will be prosecuted' for racism. 'Nobody is racist' PAME accused the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of using antisemitism allegations 'to whitewash the crimes of the murderer state, suppress any reaction, and any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people.' 'Nobody is racist, nobody has a problem with Jewish identity... Our problem is the people who support genocide,' Michailidis said at Thursday's rally. The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Gaza's Hamas rulers resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Palestinian militants also took 251 hostages that day, with 49 still held in Gaza, including 27 who the Israeli army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable. An Israeli aid blockade has exacerbated already dire humanitarian conditions in the devastated strip and plunged its more than two million inhabitants into the risk of famine.
