Deadly Evros wildfire enters 13th day as firefighters struggle to contain it
The European Union’s largest wildfire since the bloc started keeping records continued to rage for the 13th straight day in northeastern Greece on Thursday burning a pristine forest in the Dadia National Park.
The blaze has already burned around 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of land, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service.
On Wednesday night, with the blaze was moving towards the areas if Giannouli and Sidiro, local residents were told to evacuate towards the small town of Soufli and Mega Derio, respectively. On Wednesday night, authorities sent an emergency alert to the residents or the nearby Soufli and Dadia, urging them to be on alert.
A total of 475 firefighters were on the ground, backed by 11 planes and five helicopters.
The blaze began near the port city of Alexandroupolis on Aug. 19 and eventually joined other fronts in the area to form an inferno that has decimated homes and vast tracts of forest land near the border with Turkey. The blaze led to 20 of Greece’s 21 fire-related deaths last week.
Copernicus, the EU space program’s Earth observation component, said the blaze is the largest single wildfire any member nation has experienced since the European Forest Fire Information System started keeping records in 2000.
