Greek Firefighters Make Progress Against Wildfires

Athens: Firefighters in Greece gained ground Thursday against a wildfire outside the third-largest city of Patras, while water bombers battled blazes on three other fronts.

The situation in the country's main port to Italy was much improved after an overnight struggle, fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said in a televised address.

Firefighters in Patras were facing "scattered" pockets of flames but the fire was "still active" in the eastern outskirts of the city of over 200,000, he said.

Citing data from the EU's Copernicus satellite monitoring programme, the Athens national observatory on Thursday said ongoing fires in the Patras area, the Aegean island of Chios, the Ionian island of Zakynthos and near the western city of Preveza had burned over 10,000 hectares.

Police said they had arrested a 25-year-old man on suspicion of starting one of four fires that erupted near Patras on Tuesday.

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Officials on Wednesday had evacuated a children's hospital and a retirement home as the fire had moved dangerously close to the western Greek city.

As the fire swept through the Patras outskirts late Tuesday, it gutted a customs tow yard, destroying over 500 vehicles inside.

Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos, a forestry professor at Thessaloniki's Aristotle University, said forest fires in Greece were now regularly affecting urban areas.

"We have seen it in (the greater Athens area) since 2021, now in Patras," he told state TV ERT.

Other important fires continued to burn Thursday on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, the Aegean island of Chios and near the western city of Preveza, the spokesman said.

Some 600 ground crews and nearly 30 water bombing aircraft were deployed from dawn in all locations.

Reduced wind intensity was aiding firefighting efforts.

Greece this summer has faced several major forest fires amid high temperatures which scientists say human-induced climate change is intensifying.

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