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Greek firefighters battle inferno 'disaster' at natural park
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Smoke ascends over the village of Vrisa, in the southern part of the Greek island of Lesbos, as the wildfire burn near tourist resorts for the second day, forcing vunerable residents to flee on July 24, 2022. Greece on July24, 2022, battled three wildfires across the country which forced hundreds to evacuate, as soaring temperatures raised fears of more blazes.
(AFP/Anthi Pazianou)
G
reek firefighters battled wildfires on three fronts Monday as flames destroyed around 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres) of woodland in one of the country's most important protected habitats.
Around 320 firefighters, ten water-bombing planes and 13 helicopters were deployed to contain the fire, now raging for a fourth day, at the Dadia National Park, known for its black vulture colony.
Some villages in the area have been evacuated. The flames have already destroyed some 2,200 hectares of woodland, according to a local mayor.
"It's an uphill battle, a fight to ensure the survival of this exceptional ecosystem," said the minister for climate crisis and civil protection, Christos Stylianidis, after visiting the affected area.
"It's an ecological disaster, the damage is incalculable," Soufli mayor Panagiotis Kalakikos told Star TV.
Dadia, around 900 kilometres, (560 miles) northeast of Athens, calls itself one of the most important protected areas in Europe, offering ideal habitat for rare birds of prey, and says it is home to the only breeding population of black vultures in the Balkans.
"If the black vulture colony is lost, the catastrophe will be immense," Sylvia Zakkak, an ornithologist and head of monitoring at the park, told state TV ERT.
