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Crete wildfire, evacuations
Firefighters battled a deadly wildfire on the Greek island of Crete, where the blaze in the Rethymno area forced officials to evacuate about 8,000 people overnight as it threatened the resort village of Agia Galini.
“forced officials to evacuate some 8,000 people overnight”
Phys.org reported that the Crete fire was south of the city of Rethymno and that it threatened Agia Galini, while the National Observatory’s weather website meteo.gr said wind speeds in the Rethymno area had been recorded at up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour.
The fire front was described as more than 12 kilometers (7 miles), and Maria Lioni, deputy governor of the Rethymno area, said, "We evacuated (some) 8,000 people" from the resort village of Agia Galini.
Two firefighters died after being trapped on a mountain road near the village of Krya Vrysi as winds kept changing direction, and a third firefighter collapsed and died while battling a separate fire near Gytheio on the Peloponnese peninsula.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned of "difficult days" ahead, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was preparing additional support.
Deaths and shifting winds
In Greece, the wildfire deaths were tied to gale-force conditions, with BBC reporting that two firefighters died after becoming trapped when the blaze swept through the Rethymno region and that another firefighter died after being found unconscious near the southern Peloponnese port town of Gytheio.
BBC quoted resident Chrissa Gioukaki saying, "The wind is unbelievable – you can't stand sometimes. The flames were huge, it was really scary," as residents and tourists were evacuated from Krya Vrysi.
AP described the broader emergency as a wildfire stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean, with the deaths on Crete adding a fatal dimension to the southern Europe crisis.
AP said that at the peak of evacuations, "a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain," as crews confronted heat, drought, and strong winds.
AP also reported that investigators believed routine brush-clearing work near a high-voltage line may have sparked the inferno, even though the work appeared to comply with regulations.
What comes next
As the Crete blaze continued, authorities deployed large firefighting resources, with Phys.org saying the fire department deployed more than 200 firefighters and 53 fire engines to the Crete blaze.
“The fire department deployed more than 200 firefighters and 53 fire engines”
Phys.org added that strong winds prevented aircraft from taking on seawater, while the coast guard carried out numerous evacuations on Wednesday as the fire came within 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) of the village before changing direction in the evening.
In parallel, AP reported that investigators believe routine brush-clearing work near a high-voltage line may have sparked the inferno in France’s Gironde, and it said the Gironde fire forced 220,000 people to flee at the peak of the crisis.
BBC said the focus in Spain was on stabilising a perimeter of 180km (112 miles) near Madrid, after more than 43,000 hectares (108,000 acres) had already burned at Burgohondo in Ávila province.
BBC also quoted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warning that the next 12 hours will be "decisive" in putting out a wildfire near the capital Madrid, as higher temperatures, lower humidity, and gusts of wind raised the risk of flare-ups.
