More than 39,000 acres of forest roughly four times the area of Athens have already been destroyed as out-of-control wildfires ravaged through the greater area of Gortynia municipality in the Peloponnese region in Greece, Christos Lampropoulos, the regional deputy governor, said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th August, 2021) More than 39,000 acres of forest roughly four times the area of Athens have already been destroyed as out-of-control wildfires ravaged through the greater area of Gortynia municipality in the Peloponnese region in Greece, Christos Lampropoulos, the regional deputy governor, said.
"In Gortynia region, up to 39,800 acres of forest were burned. The fire is within a rugged area with very dense vegetation," the deputy governor for the Arcadia region that includes Gortynia said in comments streamed by Greek broadcaster Mega.
The blaze is still active in several areas in the region and, despite Monday's efforts to contain the fire using aerial resources, there is fear is that it may spread again on Tuesday, the official said.
Greece has been fighting wildfires for eight consecutive days now, with several countries sending help. As of Tuesday, another threatened region, apart from the Peloponnese area, is the island of Evia, where a multinational team of 873 firefighters with 229 vehicles are coordinating their efforts to contain the fire, Greek media report.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a televised address on Monday that the almost 600 wildfires, which have started in the country within the last few days, were due to the heatwave that hit Greece recently in what he described as "a natural disaster of an unprecedented scale."
