West Attica town of Megara in wildfire’s path
The wildfire tearing through southern Viotia and West Attica since Monday has reached the outskirts of the town of Megara, with local officials appealing for assistance.
“If water-dumping aircraft don’t come now, the fire will hit Megara,” the town’s deputy mayor for civil protection, Konstantinos Fylaktos, told Skai TV, a day after the blaze caused widespread destruction in Magoula and other parts of the area.
His warning came as authorities evacuated hundreds of homes and businesses on the outskirts of the town of roughly 23,000 residents, bulldozers dug trenches to prevent the fire from spreading and the Greek police joined the firefighting effort with two water cannons.
In the meantime, spokesman Yiannis Artopios told state broadcaster ERT that the Fire Service has responded to 123 wildfires in the last 48 hours.
The biggest of these are the blazes in Loutraki in Corinthia, in the Dervenohoria region of Viotia and in central Rhodes in the southeastern Aegean, he said. All three are burning out of control, as they are being fanned by strong winds and stoked by tinder-dry conditions.
