Three weeks after deadly wildfires swept through seaside villages around Greece’s Capital, another blaze raged on the island of Evia in the central part of the country, forcing the evacuation of two villages and a monastery.
No casualties were reported but unlike the July 23 fire that destroyed most of the village of Mati, officials responded quickly to get people out of harm’s way, a couple of days after the death toll in the earlier inferno hit 94.
Traffic on the main road that runs across the length of the 180-kilometer (110-mile) island was been stopped near the fire, police said, telling people who wanted to drive to Athens from the northern part of the island to use ferries to the mainland, which operated through the night.
Normally, drivers would cross a bridge at the narrowest point separating Evia from the mainland, which is south of the fire’s location on an island with constant winding and narrow roads where if a car is behind a slower vehicle or truck they couldn’t pass for many miles and with forests almost touching the roads on either side in many places.
(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report)
A blaze raged on the island of Evia in the central part of Greece, Aug. 12, 2018. (Photo by Eurokinissi/Yorgos Kontarinis)
I EA?IIO A?I OCI OUOEA OCO AOAIEAO AENOOA OII CEEI OOCI AOOEEC. EONEAEC 12/8/2018. (Eurokinissi/EIIOANEICO AEUNAIO)
A blaze raged on the island of Evia in the central part of Greece, Aug. 12, 2018. (Photo by Eurokinissi/Yorgos Kontarinis)
(Photo by Eurokinissi/Yorgos Kontarinis, file)