ATHENS (Reuters) – Wildfires raging across Greece for more than a week abated on Wednesday, though firefighters still battled on several fronts to contain blazes that have killed three people and caused thousands of tourists to evacuate.
Firefighters were tackling a fire on the island of Evia, where two pilots were killed on Tuesday when their Canadair CL-215 plane, which was dropping water onto the flames, crashed into a hillside. A 41-year-old stockbreeder, missing since Sunday, was also found burned in a shack in a remote area.
On the island of Rhodes, where more than 20,000 foreign visitors and locals fled seaside hotels and homes over the weekend, dozens of firefighters tried to tame three fronts more than a week after the wildfires broke out, the fire brigade said.
“Wildfires across Greece have abated but firefighters are still operating at different spots,” a fire brigade official said.
The Greek government on Wednesday sought to contain damage to the reputation of one of its key revenue earners. Greece is heavily reliant on tourism and Rhodes, one of its biggest islands, is among its top summer destinations, attracting about 1.5 million foreign tourists in the summer months.
Around 3,000 holidaymakers had left Rhodes to return home by plane by Tuesday, while tour operators cancelled upcoming trips. TUI dropped flights to Rhodes through Friday.
Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni said that wildfires have affected only a small part of the island.
“We have contacted the chamber of hoteliers and we want to see how we can bring people with holiday vouchers back,” she told Open television.
On the island of Corfu, where a wildfire rekindled overnight without threatening homes, a local governor said he suspected arson.
“Suddenly, there was a fire out of nowhere…we have not slept for three-four days now to watch out for such incidents,” Nikos Mouzakitis, a deputy mayor in northern Corfu told state television ERT.
Wildfires in Greece are common in the summer but hotter, drier and windier conditions, the result of a climate change, have turned the country into a Mediterranean hotspot in recent years.
The high temperatures in Greece were set to rise on Wednesday to exceed 45 Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in some areas and the government said the Acropolis in Athens, one of the world’s most visited tourism sites, will shut at 1100 a.m. (0800 GMT).
The mercury was forecast to fall on Thursday.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
