Battle With Blazes Continues to Challenge Greece

Health officials said several firefighters and volunteers had been hospitalized with burns. Many settlements meanwhile face electricity problems, while the national road from Athens to Lamia is closed.

Thodoris Nikolaou, a Greek freelance photo-reporter, who has been covering the wildfires in the village of Agia Anna, northern Evia, told BIRN. "The fire is out of control; villages have been evacuated. People are screaming that there is no help."

The fire in Evia started on Tuesday from the seaside village of Limni but expanded on multiple fronts. Coastguard ships, as well as private vessels, have evacuated dozens of people from the area by sea.

"The northern part of Evia has been burning for more than three days with no aerial support until yesterday morning. The fire went out of control," Maria, a resident in Agia Anna, said.

Romania, Switzerland, Cyprus, France, Sweden and Israel will all in the next days will send firefighters, trucks and helicopters to assist Greece in tackling the blazes.

But meteorologists fear weather conditions are expected to worsen as winds pick up. Giorgos Patoulis, Attica regional governor, told SKAI TV: "We need ground and aerial means, which will make a difference. It is a big gamble to control the fire front … when it looks like the winds will strengthen".

On Thursday, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Prime Minister, gave a televised speech saying that the government's priority was the protection of human life, then "safeguarding property, the natural environment and critical infrastructure".

"Unfortunately, in these circumstances, achieving all of these goals simultaneously is simply not feasible," he said. The PM's statement drew criticism from part of the Greek media, which said the state...