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Added on the 01/09/2023 13:50:00 - Copyright : Euronews EN
Firefighters struggled Thursday against strong winds and hot, dry conditions to tame multiple wildfires ravaging Greece, including one in the country's northeast that officials say is the largest recorded in the European Union.
Firefighters continue to battle the devastating wildfires in Greece's Dadia National Park, which have now been burning for two weeks. The European Commission has said the blaze is the continent's largest wildfire on record. This week, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament that the wildfires burning across the country were expected to consume more that 150,000 hectares of land. Greece has experienced a summer of intense heat and frequent fires and, while the government has been quick to blame climate change, some experts have begun looking at planning failures to explain such a destructive season.
Fires in Greece this summer will burn an area of at least 150,000 hectares (370,600), the Greek prime minister says including a large fire in the north which has been burning for nearly two weeks. The area ravaged by fires "will exceed 1,500,000,000 square metres (150,000 hectares)... the most serious one was the one at Dadia forest", says Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, referring to the forest fire that the EU has branded the largest ever recorded in the bloc. SOUNDBITE
A forest blaze in Greece is "the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU" says Balazs Ujvari, a spokesperson for the block, who also announces the mobilisation of nearly half the EU's firefighting air wing to tackle it. "We have mobilised 12 aircraft from our rescue fleet together with over 400 firefighters and 60 vehicles" he explains. SOUNDBITE
Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is visiting the area on Monday to review the damage, with local authorities hoping the worst is now over.
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