A wildfire that broke out on the island of Evia on Monday between the villages of Petries and Krieza on the eastern side of the island continues to rage on Tuesday.
During the night and early Tuesday morning, new 112 messages were sent to residents of Klimaki, Liani Ammo, Petries, and Krieza to evacuate.
According to the fire department, the fire is moving south between the settlements of Petries, Krieza, and Alonia.
Approximately 205 firefighters with 56 vehicles are operating on the scene, while with the first light of day on Tuesday, five aircraft and three helicopters were sent to assist in firefighting efforts.
“Properties and settlements were indeed at risk. I would not say it is the most dangerous fire of the summer so far, [as] we had other difficult ones, but it is one of the most dangerous,” fire service spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis said.
Authorities closed the road connecting central and southern Evia.
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently warned of a difficult summer ahead for the country.
He noted that the battle against the fires would last quite a while, as Greece was only now entering the heart of the firefighting season. He also said this “will certainly not be won without the assistance of the citizens, especially in the field of prevention.”
Last winter was the warmest since modern records began being kept in 1960, according to the National Observatory of Athens, which analyzed European Union satellite data. The six warmest Greek winters on record have occurred in the past decade.
2021 forest fires ravaged Evia
Several forest fires have hit the island of Evia in recent years. The summer of 2021 when more than 50,000 hectares of woodland—almost 15 percent of the island’s surface area—burned over the course of ten days was especially brutal.
The fire swept through village after village from one side of the island to the other, taking both residents and tourists by surprise. Hundreds of animals lost their lives, while houses, olive groves, and beehives burned to the ground.
Evia was particularly hard-hit by fires since it is one of the least wealthy of the Greek islands and many residents depend on its woodland for their livelihoods.
From the first moment of the awful fires of August 2021 on Evia island, Greek Reporter deployed its team in Greece not only to report on the disaster of epic proportions but also to mobilize the Greek diaspora and philhellenes around the world to offer support for fire victims.
People all around the world were stunned by the magnitude of the Northern Evia fires, watching the disturbing images on their TV sets day after day during the month of August, which had set record temperatures even before the fires broke out.
A moving photo of an elderly lady taken during the fires that devastated the island of Evia, Greece was chosen as one of the four Best Photos of 2021 by TIME magazine.
Related: Evia Fires: The Largest Environmental Catastrophe in Greece
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