15 emergency alert messages issued already Friday as villages evacuated
The fire service has issued a spate of 112 emergency alert messages, with eight such messages being sent in less than two hours on Friday afternoon.
By 5.30 p.m., 15 emergency alert messages had been issued to residents in various parts of the country, including Attica; the Peloponnesian prefectures of Arcadia, Argolida, Achaea, and Messinia; as well as Larisa in Thessaly.
Nine of the 15 messages issued on Friday urged residents to evacuate their villages or settlements.
The Peloponnese regional governor, Dimitris Ptochos, told Kathimerini that there are “eight fire fronts are currently raging in the Peloponnese. There are four large ones: in Kranidi, where houses have burned, Megalopoli, Messinia and another one in Argolida. And four smaller ones, two of them in Corinthia.”
In Messinia, a fire is raging in a forested area in the Oichalia municipality. The front is located south of the village of Neohori and is moving towards Valyra and the Voulkanou monastery.
The mayor of Erymanthos, Theodoros Baris, described a fire in the Mastrantoni region of Achea, as very difficult. He told Kathimerini that “more than 10 settlements have been evacuated” and reports that “there is definitely damage to settlements, houses and sheepfolds.”
“Wind speeds, on many occasions, are exceeding 95 kilometers per hour, which hampers aircraft to approach,” said fire service spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis in a televised briefing.
“All civil protection forces have been on alert today,” he added, as around 45 forest fires broke out in the country within a few hours. [Kathimerini/Reuters]
