Locality surrounding Athens forced to evacuate due to escalating forest blaze.
Based on the declaration of the Civil Protection Minister, the incident was deliberately initiated: Visual evidence demonstrated "quite obviously, a man igniting a blaze in dry vegetation," the minister explained during a press conference. Harsh winds and high temperatures greatly intensified the flames.
In the words of the Fire Department's spokesperson, the hot and windy weather caused fires to erupt almost every six minutes throughout the nation. The majority of these flare-ups were promptly extinguished. Apparently, there were five substantial fires burning on the Peloponnese Peninsula.
Last week, Greece experienced its earliest heatwave within recorded history. The nation endured an unusually prolonged heatwave last summer, resulting in multiple forest fires. Over 174,750 hectares of forestland and crops were reduced to ashes.
Experts link human-induced global warming to extended and destructive forest fire seasons.
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The helicopter was deployed to transport evacuees from the villages near Athens, as the forest fire continued to spread. The heatwave and high winds contributed to the forest fires, turning dry vegetation into a tinderbox for the fire-fighting aircraft. The Civil Protection Minister stated that visual evidence indicated a deliberate initiation of the forest blaze. Despite the challenging conditions, many of the fires were extinguished by the Fire Department's vehicles.
