Fires in Greece: Fast-moving wildfires stretching emergency resources as blazes in Patra, Chios and Preveza - evacuations in place
Multiple, fast-moving wildfires are testing the limits of Greece’s emergency response.
Blazes are advancing into neighborhoods in the western port city of Patra and causing significant damage on the eastern Aegean island of Chios. In Patra, Greece’s third-largest city, fires burned unchecked on the outskirts, prompting evacuation messages via the 112 emergency system urging residents to leave neighborhoods on the city’s edge and move toward the center.
The Karamandaneio Children’s Hospital was evacuated as a precaution, and homes and businesses were destroyed. Michalis Anastasiou, the deputy mayor of civil protection in Patra, told Kathimerini that municipal appeals for substantial aerial support were not met in the critical early stages.
Firefighting forces were stretched thin, with at least three other major blazes – in Achaia in the northwestern Peloponnese, on Chios and in Preveza, northwestern Greece – burning out of control. In Chios, the fire swept through the historic village of Volissos, leaving widespread destruction.
“The destruction is immense,” said Yiannis Malafis, the island’s mayor. The scale and simultaneous nature of the fires, authorities stressed, underscored the growing threat posed by wildfires in Greece.
There is no longer an active front in Zante but only small scattered outbreaks. Three helicopters have been deployed.
Arson probes are underway in multiple regions.