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The fire occurs when southern Europe holds with a sharp summer heat wave that has killed people in several countries.
A forest fire on the Greek island of Crete has led to the evacuation of more than 1,500 people, local media reported, since a heat wave of the beginning of summer continues to grab southern Europe.
At least 230 firefighters, some sent from Athens, tried on Thursday to contain the fire, which exploded on Wednesday night near Iierapetra, a city on the southeast coast of the island.
In other places, a forest fire killed at least two people in the Spanish region of the Northeast of Catalonia, and deaths related to heat in France and Italy have also been recorded this week.
Extended by Gale’s winds, the fire in Crete reached houses and hotels, according to local authorities, who said that dozens of residents and tourists had been evacuated to an inner stage in Irapera.
“Three settlements were evacuated and more than 1,000 abandoned their homes. Some were taken to health centers with respiratory problems,” said George Tsapakos, an attached Civil Protection governor of Crete, to the Public Issuer ET.
Meanwhile, the vice president, Yannis Annannis Androulakis, confirmed that the fire, which currently has “three active fronts”, had spread rapidly due to strong winds.
“There are still several different fronts. The fire is burning thickets and crops,” he said. “The winds are very strong, up to nine on the Beaufort scale.”
In an interview with the Mega television channel, Androulakis added that the water bomber aircraft could not reach the areas affected during the night.
Drones and 10 helicopters were also being used to fight the fire, according to a spokesman for the Greek Fire Service.
In his daily newsletter on Thursday, the Firefighters service warned that the risk of forest fires in Crete and southern Greece remained very high.
Last year, Greece experienced its warmest summer, with 45,000 hectares (111,200 acres) burned by forest fires, according to WWF Greece and the National Observatory of Athens.
Even more land were damaged in 2023, when almost 175,000 hectares (432,400 acres) were affected by forest fires since temperatures reached 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit).
