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Nearly 400 firefighters and EU water bombers were deployed Thursday in Greece to end a fire that devastated for the third day in a row a precious nature reserve on the island of Euboea.
" We are more optimistic today because the winds have calmed down, " ERP spokesman Yiorgos Kostopoulos, the island's civil protection officer, who is about 100 kilometers northeast of Athens, told public television.
The firefighters managed to block fire in a ravine near the village of Platana, supported by a hundred trucks, nine helicopters and nine aircraft including two from Italy and one from Spain. " We are doing everything possible to create new fire defenses near the village, " continued Kostopoulos. You could see a digger digging a trench behind him.
The fire, which did not kill anyone, affected the forest of Agrilitsa, a unique pine forest, causing invaluable damage in this 550-hectare nature reserve. " The forest has been ravaged, " local community leader Dimitris Yiannoutsos told TV Open. The fire started early Tuesday on the island , the second largest Greek island after Crete, resulting in the evacuation of four villages, including Platana.
►Also read: Greece: "ecological disaster" on the island of Euboea ravaged by a forest fire
The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Action, the Cypriot Christos Stylianides, Wednesday described in Athens " exemplary " the mobilization of Greek forces and evoked a " tangible European solidarity ". At the request of Athens, the European Union mobilized its resources from the Rescue mechanism . Greece has been affected in recent days by a series of fires under the combined effect of scorching temperatures, high winds and drought.
(With AFP)