Hundreds of firefighters are still battling wildfires on Thursday 20 July in Greece, but the fires west of Athens have subsided, while they continue to rage on the island of Rhodes, with a new bout of the heat wave hitting the country.
And the most difficult fire remains the one that broke out at noon on Tuesday in the center of the tourist island of Rhodes, in a forested area with dense vegetation, according to the Greek News Agency.
sequel after announcement
One hundred firefighters, 2 planes from Canada and 3 helicopters are working on this island in the Dodecanese archipelago (southeast) in the Aegean Sea, one of the main tourist destinations in Greece where the season is in full swing, according to the firefighters.
On the other hand, to the west of Athens, the situation continued to improve as outbreaks spread ‘No single active front’According to ANA. Southeast of Athens, 3,472 hectares have burned, according to the European Observatory Copernicus.
Already 30 degrees Celsius at 7 in the morning
After the first wave of heatwave last week, Greece is also bracing for new high temperatures until Sunday with a peak of 43°C expected in the center of the country on Thursday. At about 7 am local time, the thermometer was already approaching 30 degrees Celsius in the center of Athens. In the Greek capital, an absolute record temperature of 44.8°C was recorded in June 2007, according to the National Observatory of Athens.
“We need absolute vigilance […] Because hard times have not passedGreek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned on a visit to the Environment Ministry. We are facing a new heat wave. And “to a possible strengthening of the winds.”
sequel after announcement
The danger of fires remains very high for the area around the Greek capital, Attica, as well as the Peloponnese peninsula (southwest) and central Greece, according to the Civil Protection.
“We are still facing the summer with inadequate and worn-out equipment”: in the face of drought, firefighters are under high pressure
In the face of this new heat wave, all archaeological sites in Greece, including the Acropolis in Athens, will remain closed from Thursday to Sunday during the hottest hours of the day.
The World Heritage site, which is currently experiencing a jump in visitors, was already closed last weekend during the hottest hours.
The Bifa caretakers union said at least 20 visitors had fallen unconscious at the site due to temperatures that can rise to 45 degrees Celsius. The Red Cross announced that it was once again fanning out at the bottom of the Sacred Rock to hand out tens of thousands of bottles of water to visitors.
