ATHENS – After saying climate change had helped fuel Greece’s wildfires – as in 2021 – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it’s just one cause and that more efforts must also be made to deal with the almost annual problem.

Mitsotakis said Greece needed to reform its fire fighting and fire prevention policies and do more to alleviate the impact of climate change, after he created a special ministry two years earlier to do that.

“The climate crisis may be a reality, but it cannot be an excuse,” he said during a meeting with President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, reported the Reuters news agency as he downplayed earlier statements saying climate change was at fault.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/firefighters-battle-greece-wildfires-overnight-farms-factories-burn-2023-07-27/

“Our country ought to take more steps … be ready to mitigate, as much as possible, the effects of a reality that we are already starting to feel, and that could have dramatic effects on many different aspects of our economic and social life,” he said.

He didn’t mention trying to manage forests and woodlands to clear them of brush which critics said is a leading cause for the fires starting and spreading so fast, nor what the climate change ministry would do next.

He spoke before 10 days of firefighting efforts on the mainland and islands of Evia – where two pilots died after dropping water on a blaze when their plane crashed – Corfu, and Rhodes were finally being put under control.

The country’s long heatwave that saw temperatures as high as 113 degrees and high winds had whipped the fires faster than they could be put out and while the temperature finally dropped below 100 degrees the wind stayed.

Officials ordered the evacuation of several communities in the hard-hit area of Magnesia, a coastal area north of Athens and some had to leave quickly, including on speed boats, to get to the nearby port city of Volos.

Powerful explosions were heard from an ammunition depot in the coastal town of Nea Aghialos, Greek state television ERT reported, adding it belonged to the Greek Air Force, and an investigation was coming

“There were dozens of blasts which caused glass windows to shatter, people got panic,” Volos Mayor, Achilleas Beos told Open television, the city being a regional capital as well.

Greek fire brigade spokesperson Ioannis Artopoios said that firefighters made a “superhuman effort” but couldn’t contain rekindling blazes in the wider area of Volos and in Aghialos.

The fire brigade said more than 500 wildfires have burned across the country, adding to the misery of the heatwave and critics saying there was a failure to manage forests and woodlands, with suspected arsonists also arrested.

The body of a 45-year-old shepherd was found in a rural area in the area of Magnesia, the fire brigade said, after  authorities had found the body of a woman, state TV ERT said. Both deaths were attributed to the fires.

The fire brigade said 74 firefighters were injured, or suffered heat stroke, while battling the blazes over the past 10 days. Five people had died and the risk of more fires breaking out remained high.

In Sesklo, a village near Volos, the charred remains of a cow could be seen on a farm as locals coached away other cattle, the news report said.

“It started from the grass on various fronts in the area and we got to this situation from the lack of public authority, of regional governors, mayors, to burn half of Magnesia,” farmer Kostas Koukouvinos said.

Flames had also threatened Volos before firefighters circled the area to protect it, a witness told Reuters. Drone footage showed the fire leaving behind a trail of destruction, with charred trees and land covered in ash.

The fire in Kymi on the island of Evia, where the pilots were killed in the crash, was brought under control as were rekindled blazes on Corfu and near  the town of Lamia, south of Volos.