On the evening of July 4, a forest fire near Thessaloniki swept through a mountainous area on the outskirts of Greece's second-largest city. Due to the rapid spread of the fire, authorities ordered the evacuation of residents of three settlements and people from a facility for the disabled.
This was reported by the Greek fire service, AP reports.
According to the fire service, the fire began around 8:30 pm in a ravine in a mountainous area. Due to dry weather and wind, the fire quickly spread to flat areas, where mainly shrubs were burning.
Despite the scale of the fire, residential buildings were not damaged. At the same time, the fire damaged several businesses.
The authorities sent SMS messages demanding evacuation to residents of the following settlements:
- Antoupoli;
- Filotei;
- Galini.
In addition, rescuers evacuated a facility where 157 people with special needs were staying.
Local authorities reported that: about 120 people who could move independently were placed in a sports hall. The rest of the evacuees were transported to a psychiatric hospital.
On the night of July 5, Greek authorities reported the detention of a 76-year-old man suspected of arson.
According to the fire service, at the time of detention, the man was in a state that indicated possible alcohol intoxication.
Residents of Thessaloniki reported seeing flames even from the city and hearing explosions. They were caused by the ignition of flammable materials on the territory of enterprises. Thick smoke covered several suburbs and western districts of Thessaloniki.
Greece regularly suffers from large-scale forest fires due to hot, dry and windy summers. At the end of June, firefighters had already extinguished another large forest fire in the central part of the country near residential buildings.
As a reminder, Europe is experiencing an intense heat wave with record temperatures and "red" warnings in a number of countries. The Sentinel-3 satellite recorded how the earth's surface is heating up these days - in places to almost 50 °C.
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