Galery

2

1

Victoria Mindova

The service investigating arsons is considering a scenario for sabotage on Chios, which resulted in a fourth day of continuous fight with the devastating fire. Greek fire department spokesman Nikos Tsogas said that the four fires on the island of Zakynthos had started around 2:25 am on Saturday, when the fire on the island of Chios broke out. The fire department has issued today a ban on entering the forest areas of the country after sunset.

Meanwhile, the fire on Chios has spread from the southern to the central and northern parts of the island last night. It affected approximately 90,000 acres of forest and agricultural land. There are about 30 active fires at present. The worst is the situation in the region southwest of Olympus to Mesta, where the fire has spread significantly during the night and in the central region of Anavatos. "Forests are mainly burning for the time being and the fire has already reached the northern part of the island," Vassilis Mitsouras from chiopress.gr told GRReporter exclusive. He said the fires could be seen from almost any part of the island, but people were still going to work and doing their daily duties.

Mitsouras is adamant that withdrawal of tourists is out of question. "The big and the most popular tourist resorts and villages of Chios are located in the eastern part of the island, where the areas are unaffected by the fire. Strong winds have helped the smoke of burning fireplaces to clear away and no clouds are covering the tourist beaches," the local journalist said. Transport, including flights to and from Chios, is on schedule because the airport on the island is located in the eastern part, where there are no fires, nor clouds of fire.
 
There are currently no recorded cases of people with breathing difficulties and hospitals on the island have taken no special measures. There is no evacuation of settlements, but in areas where people feel threatened, they themselves temporarily leave their houses. The situation in areas where the fire had destroyed part of the grid, the cables and the poles was hard. "People stayed in the villages, although there was no electricity." Mitsouras said that repair groups of the national electricity company had repaired the damages caused by the fire relatively quickly.

Volunteers from neighbouring islands have arrived to the place of the fire by their own transport means to help extinguish the blaze. "The majority of volunteers are local people, but there are people from Ikaria, Samos and Mitilini too." Volunteers from neighbouring islands are staying at the municipal tourist station in the city while helping to extinguish the fire. They are cooperating with the fire brigades on the spot and helping the authorities to clear the areas.

Mitsouras pointed out that a large number of mastic trees have been destroyed. They are the only source of mastic resin - the main export product of Chios. According to unconfirmed data, the loss to the island due to the destruction of the specific trees will be in the range of 4-5 million euro, taking into account that the export of mastic resin brings Chios approximately 12 million per year.
 
Greek fire department spokesmen Nikos Tsogas said that 282 fires broke out across Greece in the last three days. The fire in the area of Trizina in Corinth, which broke out on Monday afternoon, is still burning and spreading in addition to that on the island of Chios. In Athens, a fire in the area of Menidis that burned a sugar factory neighbourhood was contained. The fire broke out on Tuesday morning and was partially contained in the afternoon. Twenty fire-fighters and eight fire engines are on site. Fighting the fires on the island of Zakynthos in Avlona in the district of Messinia also continues and fourteen fire-fighters and six specialized vehicles are operating there as well as eighteen people from the land forces and six fire-fighting aircraft. There is another active outbreak near Ano Volimes on the same island, where fifteen fire-fighters are fighting the fire with five fire engines and two planes.