Tourists and locals evacuated by land and sea from villages on the Halkidiki peninsula in northern Greece on Thursday after a large forest fire, fanned by strong winds, burned down houses and trees near the coastal resort town of Siviri, at the peak of the summer season, Reuters reported. Croatia is also battling coastal fires, BTA reported.
Residents and visitors to Siviri, wearing face masks, some holding children or pets, boarded inflatable boats and motorboats as the fire devoured the forest and sent thick columns of smoke high into the sky.
As the fire advanced from land to the coast, the flames consumed holiday apartments and their balconies overlooking the sea.
The coast guard said more than 300 people had been evacuated by boat from Siviri, located on a picturesque peninsula of forests, olive groves and beaches, south of Greece's second-largest city, Thessaloniki. Patrol boats, fire boats and fishing boats were involved in the operation, the official statement said.
More than 140 firefighters were sent to the scene to fight the flames, which were raging on both sides of the main road from Siviri to the town of Kassandria. Nine planes and seven helicopters were involved in the operation, the fire service said in a statement on the Ex platform. One firefighter was injured and traffic in the area was stopped.
“Our efforts are focused on extinguishing the fire and safely transporting people,“ fire department spokesman Yannis Artopios told the “Protothema“ news portal, quoted by Reuters.
Strong gusts of wind also hampered firefighters' efforts on Croatia's popular Dalmatian coast, where a section of a main highway was closed due to a fire in the Lokva Rogoznica area, south of the town of Omis, the agency added, citing local media. Hundreds of residents and tourists have been evacuated, Agence France-Presse notes.
“The fire continues to spread. The wind is not helping us at all. "Many houses have been destroyed by the flames, and others are seriously endangered," Ivan Pavicevic, deputy mayor of Omis, told the media portal Slobodna Dalmatia.
Around a thousand people who fled the flames were sheltered by members of the Croatian Red Cross in a gym in Omis, the city's mayor Zvonko Mocic said, as quoted by local media Net.hr.
A series of heat waves this summer across Europe have intensified droughts, overwhelmed water supply systems and dried out vegetation, which has facilitated the spread of forest fires in Spain, France and Greece, burning almost record areas, Reuters recalls.