Firefighters have managed to contain forest fires in central Greece and on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Euboea, which have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of forest since last week, authorities reported on Friday.
For the first time after ten days of fighting the flames the situation in Rhodes, in the eastern Aegean Sea, is under control thanks to the efforts of about 300 firefighters and thousands of volunteers who extinguished small sources of fire.
Starting early in the morning, five planes and a tanker helicopter began to operate in the area.
This great fire burned more than 16,000 hectares of forest and forced the evacuation of some 19,000 people, including 7,000 tourists.
The fire burned too dozens of homes and an as yet unquantified number of animals.
Content is also the great fire that broke out this Wednesday south of the city of Volos in central Greece.
On Thursday the flames reached a Greek Air Force ammunition depot, where there were missiles, bombs and weapons from F-16 fighters, causing loud explosions and forcing thousands of people to be evacuated from the area.
The shock wave spread tens of meters away. and broke the windows of numerous buildings in the nearby town of Nea Anchialos.
Hundreds of people, including elderly people with mobility problems and parents with their babies in their arms, had to leave this town by sea.
Also contained are the fires on the islands of Corfuin the northeast of the country, and on the island of Euboea, northeast of Athens.
According to the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vasilis Kikilias, from last day 17 to Thursday a total of 594 fires were declared in Greece.
Five people lost their lives because of the fires, among them two pilots whose tanker plane crashed this past Tuesday in Euboea.
Strong northerly winds reached south-eastern Europe on Thursday, ending the heatwave that Greece experienced for three weeks, with temperatures reaching 46.4 degrees, the highest ever recorded in the country.
However, the risk of fires will remain high for the next few days, due to the drought and strong winds that will hit some parts of the country, authorities warned.