Firefighters continued to battle dozens of fires on Tuesday in north-western Greece that have been raging for a ninth consecutive day as scorching temperatures hit the country.
Land forces could not extinguish the fires in the north-western region of Konitsa due to landmines.
A fire that broke out a day earlier in Skafi, near the city of Hania on the southern Mediterranean island of Crete, was finally brought under control but not before it destroyed thousands of hectares of farms, forest land and livestock.
Firefighters — along with two firefighting aircraft and two helicopters — remained in the area in case the fire rekindled due to strong winds and high temperatures in the area.
In the meantime, a 26-year-old was remanded in custody on Tuesday and charged with arson for last week’s fire along the northern Peloponnese coast of Aegio.
A Russian firefighting BE-200 amphibian plane, with a water capacity of 12 tonnes, was being used after its arrival on Sunday following an appeal by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Two Mi-8 helicopters, each with a water capacity of seven tonnes, were also expected to arrive on Monday.
Since the beginning of June, hundreds of fires caused by tinder-dry conditions and record-high temperatures have destroyed more than 60 000ha of forest and taken the lives of five firefighters.
Forest rangers have been placed on 24-hour patrol until summer’s end.
Canary Islands
Meanwhile, Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said on Tuesday that her government was sending more firefighters and helicopters to combat huge wildfires on the Canary Islands. The fires have prompted the evacuation of more than 13 000 people on Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
About 150 soldiers were to boost about 300 people already combating the flames on Tenerife, with around the same number of soldiers and firefighters about to leave for Gran Canaria, where up to 1 000 people including volunteers were battling the flames, reports said.
Narbona described the situation as ”very serious” after meeting with officials in the Gran Canaria capital, Las Palmas.
Residents have accused the authorities of not mobilising sufficient means to stop the fires.
Two soldiers were injured on Gran Canaria when the fuel truck they were travelling overturned during the firefighting effort, the Defence Ministry said. Initial reports said one of the soldiers was very seriously injured, but the ministry said both sustained only slight injuries.
Officials said that about 8 450 people have been evacuated on Tenerife, where a fire damaged houses in several villages.
The number of people evacuated on Gran Canaria rose to 5 200 since Friday after 3 200 more were evacuated overnight from San Bartolome de Tirajana in the centre of the island.
Flames have circled about 30 000ha on both islands, more than one-third of which have been burned, radio reports said. Residents in some of the affected areas were advised to leave rapidly, take only their most important belongings and not approach their houses, though some refused to go far from their family homes and farm animals.
”The fiery beast devours everything on its path,” a local newspaper wrote as flames left behind scorched houses and smoking tree stumps.
Among the most affected municipalities was Mogan in western Gran Canaria, where flames destroyed 60 houses, including that of the mayor. Firefighters were getting the situation in Mogan under control, and residents began returning home.
Tourists saved
Firefighters were focusing their efforts on San Bartolome de Tirajana, where tourists had been brought to safety from two hotels on Monday. The daily El PaÃÂs put their number at 1 000, while other reports spoke of 50 Germans evacuated from one of the hotels.
About 600 visitors were also evacuated from the Palmitos Park zoological and botanical centre, where a number of birds were released to save them from the flames, officials said. A smaller fire was reported in Moya on northern Gran Canaria.
Firefighting efforts continued to be hampered by temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius.
On Tenerife, firefighters were trying to keep the blaze from spreading from the north and centre to the south of the island, where two smaller fires were reported. Several roads were closed on both Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
Both fires were believed to have been caused intentionally. On Gran Canaria, a forest warden was in custody after confessing to having started the blaze over not getting his work contract renewed. The 37-year-old warden, Juan Antonio Navarro Armas, said he started the fire to demonstrate that more manpower was needed to protect forested areas.
Several fires also remained active on La Gomera Island on Tuesday.
The central government and the regional authorities pledged to pay damages to those affected.
Wildfires were also reported on the Spanish mainland. In the eastern Valencia region, firefighters were getting under control a blaze that swept 100ha of forest and bush. Near Cordoba, firefighters brought under control a fire that devastated 4 100ha. — Sapa-dpa