Three firefighters died in Greece on Wednesday in two separate wildfire-related incidents.
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The Greek Fire Service announced that two members of Crete’s firefighting force, aged 25 and 58, died while battling flames in the Rethymno area.
Preliminary information indicates that they were responding in an isolated area when they were surrounded by the fire and died at the scene. Police later located their vehicle, which had been completely destroyed by the flames.
Top Channel correspondent Artur Bibe reports that two other firefighters suffered serious injuries. They are being treated in hospital but are out of danger.
The third fatality was recorded during the fire that has engulfed the area of Gythio in the Peloponnese.
The victim was the head of the regional fire service office in Laconia. According to a police statement, the 30-year-old firefighter suffered a heart attack due to exhaustion and intense physical strain during the operation to extinguish the flames. The fire has been burning for 24 hours and has engulfed hundreds of hectares in the area.
Firefighting operations are continuing at full intensity in the Peloponnese, on the island of Paros, in Mytilene and on Crete. On Crete, the flames have spread along a front stretching more than 15 kilometers between Rethymno and Chania.
Hundreds of firefighters and volunteers have been deployed in efforts to bring the situation under control. The response is being severely hampered by temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius and winds reaching force 8 on the Beaufort scale.
Because the authorities were unable to establish a safe evacuation corridor by land, around 2,000 tourists and residents in the Chania area were evacuated by sea using ships and private boats.
The critical situation is expected to continue over the next 48 hours. Civil Protection has issued a high wildfire risk warning for several parts of the country and has urged residents to exercise extreme caution and, if necessary, strictly follow the authorities’ orders.
