12/7/2023 0 Comments Recent plane crashes in greece“We were choking on the smoke and ran as far as we could … we eventually made it to safety.” “The fire got got very close and we had to run,” Sumakovic wrote, captioning videos of the fire. In a series of online posts, Sumakovic described frantic scenes as she and Petrusev escaped the fire. … The Greek Fire Service has battled more than 500 fires - more than 50 a day,” said Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection.Īuthorities said that more than 20,000 people have been involved in successive evacuations on the island, mostly tourists over the weekend when fires swept through two coastal areas in the southeast of Rhodes.Īmong them was Serbian basketball star Philip Petrusev, a played for the Philadelphia 76ers who was vacationing on Rhodes with his partner Tiana Sumakovic. “For the twelfth day, under extreme conditions of heat and strong winds, we are fighting nonstop on dozens of forest fire fronts. On Rhodes, desperate residents, many with wet towels around their necks to stave off the scorching heat, used shovels to beat back flames approaching their homes, while firefighting planes and helicopters resumed water drops at first light. “On the other fronts we have to deal with many cases of the fire flaring up again,” Ioannis Artopios said.įour villages on Rhodes were ordered evacuated on Tuesday as a fire burning for eight days continued to move inland, torching mountainous forest areas, including a part of a nature reserve.Īnother five evacuations were ordered on Corfu, and one overnight on Evia. The air force said a search and rescue operation was underway, but the prospects were not good for the two pilots as the plane had no ejection system.Ī third successive heat wave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across parts of the country Tuesday amid a string of evacuations from fires that have raged out of control for days.Ī fire service spokesman said the worst blazes were on the southeastern island of Rhodes and the northwestern island of Corfu - both which are popular tourist destinations. Moments later it disappeared into a deep fold in the ground from which a fireball erupted. Greece has recently experienced its third heatwave this month.A state ERT TV video showed the CL-215 aircraft releasing its load of water on the island of Evia before its wingtip apparently snagged in a tree branch. Greek authorities have warned of extreme risk of wildfires in several areas of the country due to the record-breaking heat. The situation remained difficult in parts of the islands of Corfu and Rhodes, where major blazes burning since last week have caused extensive damage in forested zones and forced the evacuation of over 20,000 locals and tourists from several settlements.įirefighters from ten countries have already joined their Greek counterparts, and further help is expected to arrive on Wednesday, the Fire Brigade said. The fire at Karystos was one of the largest raging since the weekend, the Fire Brigade said. The two officers were the first fatalities of the wildfires that hit Greece this summer.įirefighters have been battling over 500 wildfires that broke out across the country in the past two weeks, Greek government officials said on Monday. The Canadair plane was engulfed in flames after it crashed under yet unclear circumstances. The bodies of the two men were retrieved from the crash site near the coastal town of Karystos after a search and rescue operation, the Greek national news agency AMNA reported. In their memory, we continue the battle against nature's destructive forces," the PM said. "They sacrificed their lives to save other lives. Greece is mourning with you," Sakellaropoulou said. "Our gratitude is enormous and our sorrow deep. Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister (PM) Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed condolences to their families and colleagues, A three-day period of mourning in the Armed Forces has been announced in their memory. The victims were two Greek Air Force officers aged 27 and 34, according to an e-mailed press release. ATHENS, July 25 (Xinhua) - The pilot and co-pilot of a firefighting plane have died after their aircraft crashed on Tuesday while battling a forest fire on the Greek island of Evia, the country's Defense Ministry said.
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