Authorities defend wildfire response

As Greece’s massive wildfires were being largely tamed on Tuesday, the country’s civil protection chief defended the firefighting efforts, saying every resource was thrown into the battle against what he described as the fire service’s biggest-ever challenge.

Nikos Hardalias said authorities “truly did what was humanly possible” against blazes that destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of forest and hundreds of homes, killed a volunteer firefighter, and forced more than 60,000 people to flee. Two other firefighters were in intensive care with severe burns.

“We handled an operationally unique situation, with 586 fires in eight days during the worst weather conditions we’ve seen in 40 years,” Hardalias told a news conference. “Never was there such a combination of adverse factors in the history of the fire service.”

Greece had just experienced its worst heatwave since 1987, which left its forests tinder-dry. Other nearby nations such as Turkey and Italy also faced the same searing temperatures and quickly spreading fires. Worsening drought and heat — both linked to climate change — have also fuelled wildfires this summer in the US west and in Siberia in northern Russia.

Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving extreme events.

AP A local resident helps firefighters from Serbia to extinguish a wildfire at Kamaria village on Evia island, about 189 kilometres (114 miles) north of Athens, Greece, on Tuesday. Firefighters and residents battled for an eighth day against a massive fire on Greece’s second-largest island as the nation endured what the prime minister described as ‘a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions’.