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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/22/bodies-found-in-wildfire-zone-in-north-east-greece>
"The bodies of 18 people have been found in an area of north-east Greece where
firefighters are battling a major wildfire, authorities have said, as a
record-breaking late summer heatwave continues to sear swathes of continental
Europe.
Hundreds of firefighters were struggling on Tuesday to contain dozens of
outbreaks, including several that have burned out of control for days and
forced widespread evacuations, in the second deadly wave of blazes in Greece in
a month.
The bodies were found near a shack in the Avanta area north of the city of
Alexandroupolis near Greece’s borders with Turkey and Bulgaria, authorities
said, and a disaster victim identification team was working to identify them.
A fire service spokesperson, Ioannis Artopios, said that since no reports of
missing people had been filed in the area, where a major forest fire has been
burning for four days, it was possible the victims were migrants who had
entered from Turkey.
The discovery brings the overall toll from this week’s fires in Greece to 20,
after the body of another person thought to be a migrant was found in the same
area on Monday and an elderly shepherd was found dead at the site of a blaze
north of Athens.
Local media described a “massive wall of flames” racing through forests towards
Alexandroupolis overnight, prompting authorities to evacuate another eight
villages on top of the dozen whose inhabitants had already been ordered to
leave.
The port city’s hospital was also closed and its more than 100 patients
evacuated to a ferry and other hospitals in northern Greece. The deputy health
minister, Dimitris Vartzopoulos, said airborne smoke and ash were the main
reason for the closure.
Also in the north-east, fires were burning around the city of Kavala and in the
Evros border region. The islands of Evia and Kythnos, and the Boeotia region
north of Athens, were also ablaze, with gale-force winds and temperatures of up
to 41C (106F) creating a fire risk that civil protection officials described as
extreme."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
