On Wednesday, two persons were murdered by wildfires in central Greece that were sparked by strong winds and temperatures above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). This caused a new round of evacuations.
According to the fire department, 61 wildfires have started throughout Greece just in the past 24 hours. The hard-hit coastal region of Magnesia, north of Athens, was instructed to evacuate several towns.
The fire department said that a shepherd, 45, was found dead in a rural region on Wednesday night. According to state TV station ERT, authorities had earlier discovered a woman’s body. The fires were to blame for both fatalities.
The fires were being fought by dozens of firemen with the help of 15 fire engines as they threatened the industrial area of Volos, the regional capital. According to a Reuters witness, firefighters ringed the area as they attempted to safeguard it.
Employers in the area were asked by the labor ministry to close their doors on Thursday.
South of Volos, a different wildfire started near the town of Lamia. Many settlements received orders to evacuate their residents.
Large areas of the Mediterranean have sweltered under an intense summer heatwave in recent days, and firefighters have been battling to put out blazes across the region, from Portugal to Sicily to Algeria.
On the Greek island of Rhodes, where more than 20,000 tourists and residents fled seaside hotels and homes over the weekend, fires started to die down on Wednesday, though firefighters were still battling an unquenchable wall of flames close to a mountainous region in the island’s south that has been burning for more than a week.
