Today’s news / Greece
A Canadian firefighting plane at work over the burning forests of Dadia National Park in northeastern Greece. The photo is from August 24th. Photo: Sakis Mitrolidis/Ritzau Scanpix

Greece

The wildfires in north-eastern Greece remain completely out of control with firefighters struggling to see improvement in the situation, local authorities said. “Unfortunately, we do not see that they can be contained and brought under control,” said Dimitris Petrovich, deputy governor of the region on the Turkish border. He told radio station ERT that meteorologists had announced a shift in wind Monday. This could cause the flames to spread further. He goes on to say that it is burning in the Dadia area, where there is pristine forest. The authorities have deliberately avoided exploiting the forest and have instead left it entirely to nature.
    This means that it is now difficult to control the fire in the trees and woodland. The regional authorities have issued an appeal for more firefighters to be brought to the area. On Sunday, the fires were underway for the ninth day in a row. 74,000 hectares/740 square kilometres – forest and nature have been destroyed. In Dadia National Park alone, 13,000 hectares have been eaten up by the flames. The European Commission has described it as the biggest fire in the history of the EU. /ritzau/DPA/