# Wildfires reach outskirts of Athens during scorching heatwave



## editor (Aug 4, 2021)

I've got a friend in Athens and she's having a terrible time with the heat and the smoke. It's their worst heatwave in 30 years and this looks terrifying:











						Wildfires reach outskirts of Athens during scorching heatwave
					

Residents north of Greek capital evacuated, while 42C heat forces Acropolis to reduce opening hours




					www.theguardian.com
				












						Thousands evacuated from Athens suburb as fires rage amid worst heatwave in 30 years
					

More than 40 fires are burning across Greece, write Marina Rigou in Athens and Nikolia Apostolou in Kalamata




					www.independent.co.uk


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## cupid_stunt (Aug 4, 2021)

Sky News has been good at covering this, needless to say, it's the main item on 'The Daily Climate Show', on ATM & repeated at 9.30pm.


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## zahir (Aug 4, 2021)

Report from Keep Talking Greece. It could have had a better headline.








						“Houses will be rebuilt, the forest will recover in time,” says Greek PM on Varimpompi fire disaster (picts) - Keep Talking Greece
					

"The houses will be rebuilt, the forest will recover in time...," said PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a brief visit to the outskirts of Varimpompi fire




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## zahir (Aug 4, 2021)

More reports








						State offers free accommodation to citizens affected by Attica fire: latest info - Keep Talking Greece
					

Greek authorities call on citizens of Attica who cannot return to their homes due to the forest fire




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com
				











						Athens residents urged to stay inside due to heavy smog caused by forest fire - Keep Talking Greece
					

With an urgent warning the National Observatory of Athens called on residents of the Greek capital t




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com
				











						Rescue operation for hundreds of pets left behind when locals fled Attica forest fire - Keep Talking Greece
					

Hundreds of pets, dogs and cats but also small farming animals were left behind when thousands of lo




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## zahir (Aug 4, 2021)

Fires on Evia as well








						Dramatic forest fires in Rovies, Evia; big blaze nears Ancient Olympia (videos) - Keep Talking Greece
					

Forest fires Greece: Locals and tourists in Rovies, Evia were urged to rush to the sea on Wednesday




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## Sprocket. (Aug 4, 2021)

The whole world is burning around us, we as a species become more powerless daily.
Athens holds a very dear space in my heart, i am devastated again to read of these fires.


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## wemakeyousoundb (Aug 4, 2021)

Turkey still burning as well


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## Sprocket. (Aug 4, 2021)

Fire
					

climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover, Earth science data, NASA, environmental processes, Blue Marble, global maps




					earthobservatory.nasa.gov
				




The above, although only up to April this year shows the devastation caused by constant wildfires. There are many more at the moment, their impact is obviously magnified due to the fires locations to areas of large human populations.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Aug 6, 2021)

Centre of Athens right now…


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## Flavour (Aug 6, 2021)

Fires in south of Italy too


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## zahir (Aug 6, 2021)

Evacuation ordered for the town of Yithio in the southern Peloponnese









						Man dies in Athens fire; More people evacuated are fire fronts raging in Greece - Keep Talking Greece
					

A 38-year-old man lost his life on Friday afternoon after he suffered serious head injuries while he




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## zahir (Aug 6, 2021)




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## miss direct (Aug 6, 2021)

The fires in Turkey are devastating. So much forest destroyed, animals killed, people being evacuated and losing their homes. It's heartbreaking and also leading to vigilante action  😥


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## wemakeyousoundb (Aug 6, 2021)

miss direct said:


> The fires in Turkey are devastating. So much forest destroyed, animals killed, people being evacuated and losing their homes. It's heartbreaking and also leading to vigilante action  😥



just read about a family of 7 being killed before their house was burnt down by vigilantes  😥 
fucking erodgan not helping with his speeches ffs


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## miss direct (Aug 6, 2021)

I didnt hear about that, unless its the family in Konya which was before the fires.

Friends of mine are sharing their own videos. So hard to report from Turkey, I trust what I see from them instead.


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## wemakeyousoundb (Aug 6, 2021)

miss direct said:


> I didnt hear about that, unless its the family in Konya which was before the fires.
> 
> Friends of mine are sharing their own videos. So hard to report from Turkey, I trust what I see from them instead.


ah OK, the article I was reading didn't give a date for the attack.


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## steeplejack (Aug 6, 2021)

Plenty of nasty wildfires too in Kocani in Eastern Macedonia although not as threatening as those to the south. A lot of wildlife and farmstock killed in this fire. This is quite a sobering article on how knuckle dragging conspiracy theorists sitting in malodorous tracksuit bottoms hundreds of kms away are making things worse on social media.

They say the Balkans will be largely uninhabitable in 80-100 years owing to being too hot, unless serious action is taken. My fear is that people become numb to these images amidst all the other images of suffering, shrug and quietly think "thank goodness that won't come here".

Terrifying images both sides of the Atlantic in the last couple of weeks, with recent wildfires in the US.


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)




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## Serge Forward (Aug 7, 2021)

Very upsetting. I lived in that part of Evvia in the early 90s and had mates there.


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)




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## Raheem (Aug 7, 2021)

Weirdly beautiful photos.


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## brogdale (Aug 7, 2021)

kinnel


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)




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## miss direct (Aug 7, 2021)

I'm a little sad that the fires in Greece are getting so much coverage compared to those in Turkey, which have been going on for over a week. But it's difficult to report from Turkey and the news is being suppressed by the government there


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

miss direct said:


> I'm a little sad that the fires in Greece are getting so much coverage compared to those in Turkey, which have been going on for over a week. But it's difficult to report from Turkey and the news is being suppressed by the government there



There's some discussion here of attacks on journalists covering the fires in Greece and Turkey:



It looks like the attack in Athens was by a group of fascists:








						Organized”mob” attacks Open TV crew covering devastating fires in NW Athens - Keep Talking Greece
					

A




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

A thread on the fires


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## NoXion (Aug 7, 2021)

Why the fuck would anyone attack the media in this situation? To dissuade reporting? Well that's fucking stupid, don't they know that big wildfires can be seen from _space?_ So even a total media blackout within the country (which they would never be able to achieve anyway) would not hide what's going on over there.

It's just such a spiteful and stupid waste of time and effort, during a national crisis no less! Unless these shitfucks actually _want_ the country to burn? Arsonists by proxy.


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## ska invita (Aug 7, 2021)

miss direct said:


> The fires in Turkey are devastating. So much forest destroyed, animals killed, people being evacuated and losing their homes. It's heartbreaking and also leading to vigilante action  😥


what kind of vigilante action?


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## ska invita (Aug 7, 2021)

NoXion said:


> Why the fuck would anyone attack the media in this situation? To dissuade reporting? Well that's fucking stupid, don't they know that big wildfires can be seen from _space?_ So even a total media blackout within the country (which they would never be able to achieve anyway) would not hide what's going on over there.
> 
> It's just such a spiteful and stupid waste of time and effort, during a national crisis no less! Unless these shitfucks actually _want_ the country to burn? Arsonists by proxy.


general neofascist anti-media attacks id expect - not relating to the fires, more about journalists out in public
??


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## NoXion (Aug 7, 2021)

ska invita said:


> general neofascist anti-media attacks id expect - not relating to the fires, more about journalists out in public
> ??



Are they the patriotic sort? Thugging while Greece burns...


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

The Malakasa refugee camp north of Athens had to be evacuated.


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## ska invita (Aug 7, 2021)

i'm in utter doom mode tbh -  we're fucked - environmental collapse is on, any positive political intervention if it ever comes will be way way too late. we'll be looking back at 2021 as the good old days in a couple of decades

caught a bit of radio 4 womens hour last week for some reason, cant remember what they were talking about now, but they were reading out listeners responses and one woman emailed in to say Its All Irrelevant as we're going in to climate catastrophe....cue the presenter laughing off the idea "we're doomed". It felt like an ironic moment in the film just before all hell breaks loose.


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

NoXion said:


> Why the fuck would anyone attack the media in this situation? To dissuade reporting? Well that's fucking stupid, don't they know that big wildfires can be seen from _space?_ So even a total media blackout within the country (which they would never be able to achieve anyway) would not hide what's going on over there.
> 
> It's just such a spiteful and stupid waste of time and effort, during a national crisis no less! Unless these shitfucks actually _want_ the country to burn? Arsonists by proxy.



This suggests the fascists were claiming to be helping fight the fires:





eta: 
"Let's not forget that at the wildfire frontlines are playing fascist groups of different kinds who are exploiting the catastrophe [...] In the photo is the group 'Defend Athens' at Varibobi. Food for thought."


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

There is an effort going on to organise support for people affected by the fires.


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## cupid_stunt (Aug 7, 2021)

It's tragic how half the world seems to be on fire, whilst the other half is dealing with floods.


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## ska invita (Aug 7, 2021)

cupid_stunt said:


> Sky News has been good at covering this, needless to say, it's the main item on 'The Daily Climate Show', on ATM & repeated at 9.30pm.


What is the Daily Climate Show? I get an idea from the title obviously but would you mind describing it a bit?


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## teqniq (Aug 7, 2021)




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## cupid_stunt (Aug 7, 2021)

ska invita said:


> What is the Daily Climate Show? I get an idea from the title obviously but would you mind describing it a bit?



It's a 15-minute round-up of climate news & special reports, that aims to highlight the immediate threat of global warming on the planet, and it's good that it's at prime times - M-F 6.30pm & repeated 9.30pm. 



> Sky News is set to launch the first daily prime time news show dedicated to climate change.
> 
> Hosted by Anna Jones, The Daily Climate Show will follow Sky News correspondents as they investigate how global warming is changing our landscape and how we all live our lives.
> 
> First airing on Wednesday 7 April, the show will also highlight solutions to the crisis and show how small changes can make a big difference.






> John Ryley, head of Sky News said_:_ "There has never been a more urgent need to report accurately on the climate crisis and to bring this story to new audiences.
> 
> "In this critical year for action ahead of COP26, The Daily Climate Show from Sky News will feature forensic data-journalism, expert analysis and eye-witness reporting and look at the solutions to climate change."
> 
> COP26 president Alok Sharma said*:* "I'm delighted to see how Sky, a Principal Partner and Media Partner for COP26, is informing and engaging its viewers about the climate crisis, and the need for urgent action, through the Daily Climate Show.











						The Daily Climate Show: Sky News launches prime time programme dedicated to global crisis
					

The head of Sky News says "there has never been a more urgent need to report accurately on the climate crisis".




					news.sky.com


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

The town of Istiaia on Evia is under threat with no obvious means of escape.


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## miss direct (Aug 7, 2021)

ska invita said:


> what kind of vigilante action?


Groups of men "guarding" forests with guns and beating people they suspect of starting fires.


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## Lord Camomile (Aug 7, 2021)

Fucking hell.

This is terrifying, not just the immediate devastation, but also thinking about what will be left afterwards, and to come after that too.



ska invita said:


> i'm in utter doom mode tbh -  we're fucked - environmental collapse is on, any positive political intervention if it ever comes will be way way too late. we'll be looking back at 2021 as the good old days in a couple of decades
> 
> caught a bit of radio 4 womens hour last week for some reason, cant remember what they were talking about now, but they were reading out listeners responses and one woman emailed in to say Its All Irrelevant as we're going in to climate catastrophe....cue the presenter laughing off the idea "we're doomed". It felt like an ironic moment in the film just before all hell breaks loose.


Yeah, I know little beyond the footage and stories of the different weather catastrophes, but it's hard not to draw some very depressing conclusions


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## cupid_stunt (Aug 7, 2021)

*HEADS UP - 'A Burning Summer - Wildfires on the Med' is a special half-hour report on Sky News, next repeats at 3.30pm & 7.30pm today.*

Just caught the end of that, so I'll catch the repeat, apparently the Turkish 'media dogwatch' has threaten action against media outlets if they don't tone down their coverage of the fires and stop scaring people.


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## miss direct (Aug 7, 2021)

#strongTurkey
#wedontneedhelp
These are some hashtags that were trending on Turkish Twitter  


This is a (German?) woman who's been going into the forest to try to help animals/people there. Pretty interesting posts. Reka Sahara Krieg


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)




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## sheothebudworths (Aug 7, 2021)

It's just absolutely fucking petrifying - so, so scary. The immediate terror and fear for so many people - I mean I just cannot imagine - and the total inadequacy of any help available, or being provided, along with a complete lack of any significant, meaningful and _urgent_ worldwide action to really address this, while the results of that are just storming ahead, regardless. 
So frightening to witness, even from our own distance, ffs.
And we have cunts like this overseeing it - ‘One rule for them’: Alok Sharma criticised over flights to 30 countries


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

I think this footage is from yesterday.


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## cupid_stunt (Aug 7, 2021)

cupid_stunt said:


> *HEADS UP - 'A Burning Summer - Wildfires on the Med' is a special half-hour report on Sky News, next repeats at 3.30pm & 7.30pm today.*
> 
> Just caught the end of that, so I'll catch the repeat, apparently the Turkish 'media dogwatch' has threaten action against media outlets if they don't tone down their coverage of the fires and stop scaring people.



That was a hard watch, but the footage is incredible, and their crazy team was right on the frontline at times, even filming the firefighters retreating and shouting they should do the same.   

It's on youtube now...

In a special programme on the wildfires burning across large parts of the Mediterranean, Sky's Alex Crawford reports from the scene of a blaze in Turkey.


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

Report on Evia









						Evia SOS: Flames swallow forest & villages, outraged locals refuse to evacuate (videos) - Keep Talking Greece
					

Horrified and angry residents of Istiaia and surrounding villages in northern Evia have been floodin




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## sheothebudworths (Aug 7, 2021)

On a really small level, comparatively, I watched a fire consume the upper stories of our own home, almost two years ago, within minutes.
We had ten fire engines and it still burned through the night.
We lost loads and some of my neighbours lost everything.
It was surreal to experience and I also remember that while we evacuated very quickly (despite the advice to stay put _inside_), with no lives lost and no injuries, weirdly we didn't instinctively move away from the building - just out - until the fire service arrived and obviously shouted at everyone to move.

I just can't imagine what it must feel like to have to endure fire like this, coming from all sides, while you're stuck in place with the shock of what is actually happening, with a fire service that has already been decimated and with such scarily small offers of urgent aid coming from elsewhere - those numbers posted earlier, of international help, just seem impossibly small to get any sort of a handle on it.

I am so scared for the people left shouting for help, becoming increasingly trapped.


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## Flavour (Aug 7, 2021)

This Turkish state shit blaming it on new and mysterious "Children of Fire" PKK-affiliates is so fucking pathetic and transparent and it pains me to see Turkish friends on FB fully going for it


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## zahir (Aug 7, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/wildfires-greece-1.6133382
		



> Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting Evia, the country's second-largest island, in half. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as "a biblical catastrophe."
> 
> A flotilla of 10 ships — two Coast Guard patrols, two ferries, two passenger ships and four fishing boats — waited at the seaside resort of Pefki, near the northern tip of Evia, ready to evacuate more residents and tourists if needed...


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## zahir (Aug 8, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 8, 2021)

Channel 4 report from Evia today. This touches on some of the political fall out from the disastrous handling of the fires.


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## zahir (Aug 8, 2021)

This is from the fires in Arcadia in the central Peloponnese.


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## zahir (Aug 8, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 9, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 9, 2021)

"It wasn't that the choice was made to sacrifice Evia and save Athens, the choice was made earlier to not be able to save both Athens and Evia."


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## zahir (Aug 9, 2021)

Evia Fire: "Our Children Will Never See the Island Like We Did" Says Mayor
					

The mayor of Istiaia - Aidipsos on northern Evia issued a dramatic warning about the aftermath of the devastating fires on the island.



					greekreporter.com
				





> When asked about whether such a devastating catastrophe could have been avoided, the mayor was clear. ”I don’t know if it could have been avoided, but I am sure that with a different approach, it could have been contained much better,” he says. ”We could have saved more, we could have had a more satisfying result in terms of putting out fires,” he adds. ”We didn’t put out a single fire. We were waiting for the fire fronts to move around the two municipalities of northern Evia and finally to end on the sea,” he explains, portraying a worrying picture that challenges directly the Greek government’s ability to deal with the disaster.



Drone footage from Evia


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## zahir (Aug 9, 2021)




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## planetgeli (Aug 9, 2021)

Your posts are appreciated zahir .

What is the feeling about people flying off to lay on a beach in Greece right now? There seems something morally wrong to me. But then perhaps there's an argument for 'they're helping the local economy'?


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## zahir (Aug 9, 2021)

The economy in the big cities could survive without it but in a lot of places, particularly in the islands, there's nothing much besides tourism. So yes, for better or worse local economies depend on people continuing to fly out to lay on a beach.


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## SpookyFrank (Aug 9, 2021)

planetgeli said:


> Your posts are appreciated zahir .
> 
> What is the feeling about people flying off to lay on a beach in Greece right now? There seems something morally wrong to me. But then perhaps there's an argument for 'they're helping the local economy'?



Well they're already going on a foreign holiday during a pandemic so let's just say it's too soon to rule out the possibility that they may be selfish cunts.


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## zahir (Aug 9, 2021)

The loss of life in the fire at Mati three years ago has led to a policy of blanket evacuation orders, which many villagers are understandably ignoring as they attempt to save their homes from the flames. It looks like one set of mistaken policies has been replaced by another.





As far as I know the area burnt on Evia is Greece's largest ever apart from the 2007 fires in the Peloponnese.


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## zahir (Aug 9, 2021)




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## cupid_stunt (Aug 9, 2021)

I have the Daily Climate Show set to record at 6.30pm every night, just started watching it, it's been extended from 15 to 30 minutes tonight.

Repeated at 9.30pm on Sky News - worth watching.


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## zahir (Aug 10, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 10, 2021)

This is the best English language analysis I've seen so far on the government's handling of the fires.









						Politicians have commissioned, and largely ignored, multiple reports on wildfires
					

In February 2019, the then leader of the opposition Kyriakos Mitsotakis welcomed the publication of an expert committee report on the management of forest fires in Greece, calling its recommendations “a blueprint for the steps we will follow”.




					www.macropolis.gr


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## zahir (Aug 10, 2021)

Fires still burning on Evia and in the Peloponnese. With firefighters and equipment from other countries the chances are now much better for containing them.









						Fires menacing, more villages evacuated in Evia, south Peloponnese (videos) - Keep Talking Greece
					

Fire fronts in northern Evia are still active on Tuesday, the eight day since the devastating blaze




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com
				




Evia


> The fire service said 873 firefighters, 50 ground teams and 229 vehicles were fighting the blaze, including firefighters from Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Poland. Fourteen helicopters were providing air support, including three from Serbia, two from Switzerland and two from Egypt


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## zahir (Aug 10, 2021)

The political fall out from the fires in Turkey









						Turkey: Fires expose how Erdogan's regime is descending into farce and caricature
					

In the last two weeks, wildfires have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of forest in Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean provinces, killed eight people and forced thousands of people including tourists to flee.




					www.macropolis.gr


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## not-bono-ever (Aug 10, 2021)

not just Greece either









						Algeria wildfire death toll rises as 25 soldiers killed
					

The interior ministry said earlier that fires raging east of the capital Algiers had killed at least 7 civilians.




					www.aljazeera.com


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Greece is on fire: capitalism, crisis and climate chaos
					

As fires rage and anger intensifies, swingeing cuts amid climate chaos have put the government on dangerous ground, reports Kevin Ovenden




					www.counterfire.org
				





> The scale of the destruction on Evia is hard to fathom. With fires still raging at the weekend, 430,000 of the 550,000 acres in the second most northerly municipality had been burned. The fires continue to advance.
> 
> Less reported, but crescendoing now is a wave of rage at the base of Greek society at the government and state. Crucially, the fury at the right-wing government is most intense among the immediate victims of the fires.
> 
> ...




eta: around 125,000 acres according to this





Going off this it's now Greece's largest recorded wildfire.


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Arcadia is still burning


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Greece wildfires 'slowly coming under control': mayor
					

Hundreds of firefighters were battling to control two massive wildfires in Greece on Wednesday, one raging for nine straight days, that have left hundreds homeless and caused incalculable damage.




					news.yahoo.com
				





> With the assistance of a huge multinational force, Greek fire crews were fighting to beat back blazes on the island of Evia and in the Peloponnese peninsula in rugged terrain. "I think we can say that the fire fronts are slowly coming under control," Yiannis Kontzias, mayor of the Evia town of Istiaia that has been under threat for days, told state TV ERT. "Yesterday, we saw the light of the sun for the first time in days," he said, referring to giant smoke clouds that have choked residents and obstructed water drops by firefighting aircraft.





> The situation was more precarious in the mountainous Peloponnese region of Gortynia, home to dense forests and deep ravines. Christos Lambropoulos, deputy governor for the broader Arcadia region, said efforts were concentrated on keeping the fire from reaching the thickly forested Mount Mainalo. "Villages do not seem at risk at the moment... but conditions change by the hour," he told ERT.


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Mitsotaki gamiesai - "fuck you Mitsotakis"


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## Flavour (Aug 11, 2021)

what are they all saying in response to the tv crews?


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Flavour said:


> what are they all saying in response to the tv crews?



"fuck you Mitsotakis" - it's the new meme.



			https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Μητσοτακη_γαμιεσαι&lang=en


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Arcadia


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## Flavour (Aug 11, 2021)

Holy shit that's insane


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## Pickman's model (Aug 11, 2021)

zahir said:


> Arcadia


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Polish firefighters saying the request for international help came too late.


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

As far as I know there isn't much international tourism on Evia. It's one of the places where Greeks go on holiday themselves. It's hard to see tourism taking off after the fires. The pine forest will regenerate naturally  but it's going to look like a disaster zone for years.









						Fire-stricken Evia should focus on Tourism, Greek Gov’t thinks - Keep Talking Greece
					

The area already devastated by the wildfires in Northern Evia is estimated at 505 square kilometers,




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 11, 2021)

Rain on Evia, after storms in northern Greece earlier in the day.





But lightning has started fires in Halkidiki.


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## wemakeyousoundb (Aug 11, 2021)

zahir said:


> Rain on Evia, after storms in northern Greece earlier in the day.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



don't think I've ever wished anyone to have a downpour before


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## Serge Forward (Aug 12, 2021)

zahir said:


> As far as I know there isn't much international tourism on Evia. It's one of the places where Greeks go on holiday themselves. It's hard to see tourism taking off after the fires. The pine forest will regenerate naturally  but it's going to look like a disaster zone for years.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It's true. 30 years ago I worked in Evia and lived in Μαντούδι, and it is indeed a very beautiful island with fantastic people. There was hardly any tourism back then, aside from Greeks going to places like Αιδηψός. This is really devastating. 

#Μητσοτακη_γαμιεσαι


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## steeplejack (Aug 12, 2021)

Siberian wildfire cannot be extinguished by human activity and may be the biggest recorded fire in human history



The Russians will monetise every last joule of burnable fossil fuel for the next 3-4 decades, regardless.


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## zahir (Aug 12, 2021)

The Greek wildfires and the failings of the state | The Spectator
					

Climate change is a key factor in the catastrophic Greek fires, but this is also a story of deep structural and political issues at a local and EU level




					www.spectator.co.uk
				





> The current government bears a lot of the responsibility. The Greek forestry agencies asked the government for £15 million this year to carry out preventive work to prevent fires. They only received £1.4 million. The fire department entered the fire season understaffed by 4,000 firefighters. Their fleet is old and rusting. While a previous wildfire disaster in 2018 that left 102 people dead became a focal point of the New Democracy party’s campaign in the 2019 elections, once in power, they pardoned and even promoted some of the officials thought at least partly responsible at the time.
> 
> But the problems don’t start or end with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government. Since the late 90s, Greece has separated fire prevention and suppression. Fire prevention is the responsibility of the forestry agencies, while suppression has been assigned to the fire department. And while funding for the latter increased substantially over the years, the former was completely neglected. The has led to sealed off forests accumulating fallen branches, lacking paths and proper supervision for high voltage wires passing through, and a host of other issues that are simply too numerous to list. All of this was made much worse by the psychopathic EU-mandated austerity that took aim at the fire services, in a country with a permanent wildfire problem. These austerity measures were called ‘reforms’ at the time, but in the end this was a reduction in both available firefighters, equipment and expertise.
> 
> ...


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## zahir (Aug 12, 2021)

Yiannis Baboulias | Attica Burning · LRB 11 August 2021
					

As you approach Greece from the air, smog covers the land like a curtain – a thick grey line separating the deep blue...




					www.lrb.co.uk
				





> Successive governments have ignored reports commissioned by parliament which advise a wholesale restructuring of the way the country deals with wildfires. The main recommendation is for fire prevention and suppression to be decentralised, turned over to local authorities which know their areas best. Instead, we’re seeing ever greater centralisation. Firefighters have been dispatched to areas they didn’t know, leaving them unable to do their work effectively. Often they couldn’t get to the affected areas at all. Anger against the government is everywhere. And the fires are still raging.





> One inevitable consequence of these fires – as with the effects of global heating everywhere – will be a greater internally displaced population. An official in northern Evia said that 90 per cent of the local economy has been destroyed. Tied to the forest, agriculture and tourism, it’s unlikely to return for many decades. The young are planning to leave, to find work in Athens and other cities. But after a decade of austerity, the Greek economy will find it hard to absorb them. Even if it does, current policy is to remove as many workers’ rights and protections as it can get away with, using the pandemic as cover.


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## zahir (Aug 12, 2021)

Serge Forward said:


> #Μητσοτακη_γαμιεσαι



PAOK fans today




"solidarity with the victims of the fires"
Μητσοτακη γαμιεσαι


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## zahir (Aug 13, 2021)

"The catastrophic fires on Evia, the Peloponnese and earlier in Attica seem to have been largely brought under control because of the rain that has fallen and mainly because of the titanic efforts of the volunteers and the foreign help..."


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## zahir (Aug 13, 2021)

‘The volunteers saved Evia’: How grassroots fought the Greek fires
					

Fires have savaged the Greek island of Evia. Volunteers and grassroots efforts have helped save homes and lives.




					www.csmonitor.com
				





> Volunteers were the first – and at times only – line of defense against the wildfires that engulfed the Greek island of Evia this week, leaving charred olive trees in a sea of ashes.
> 
> Some were brave local youth. Others came from other parts of the country, shocked into action by the inadequacy of the government response as it scrambled to fight an unprecedented number of fires across multiple fronts, including the capital Athens.


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## zahir (Aug 13, 2021)

Greece fires under control as reconstruction begins


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## teqniq (Aug 13, 2021)

Flooding in Turkey now:


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## Flavour (Aug 13, 2021)

Wonder how erdogan will blame the floods on the pkk


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## zahir (Aug 14, 2021)

Abandoned to the flames on Evia – DW – 08/14/2021
					

After the devastating fires that have ravaged Greece's second-largest island, many of its residents are angry with their government. They believe the disaster could have been prevented.




					www.dw.com
				





> Alexandridi is facing financial ruin. Her entire livelihood has been destroyed. And yet fires are not an infrequent event on Evia: In the past, they always put them out themselves, she says. This time, though, the government's only concern was to evacuate people.
> 
> Alexandridi feels abandoned by her government. In her view, the crisis management strategy adopted by Athens was an absolute disaster. "The mistake they made was to simply evacuate the villages in order to avoid casualties," she says. They didn't have anything like enough resources to extinguish the fires, she says, and what they did have they concentrated on Athens.
> 
> ...





> Constantinos Liarikos, the head of development at WWF Greece, says this was a preventable disaster. "It has everything to do with the fact that, in these conditions of climate crisis, not enough is being done on prevention," he explains. "The government — like all the governments of recent decades — refuses to invest in preparing authorities, volunteers and citizens."
> 
> Liarikos says Athens was well aware of the existing shortcomings. A committee drew up a clear schedule for improvements after the Mati disaster — but was ignored. "In the years that have followed, nothing has been done, just as nothing was done after the fire disaster in 2007. Expert assessments are simply thrown in the trash," says Liarikos.


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## wemakeyousoundb (Aug 14, 2021)

Russian water bomber crash in turkey with 8 people on board, no survivors.


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## zahir (Aug 14, 2021)

Report on the volunteers fighting fires on Evia, from a couple of days ago.


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## zahir (Aug 16, 2021)

Greek countryside becoming more flammable | eKathimerini.com
					

Investing in more water-dropping aircraft and fire trucks will not bring the desired results in Greece. Authorities should rather change their model of forest management, placing more emphasis on prevention.




					www.ekathimerini.com
				





> Investing in more water-dropping aircraft and fire trucks will not bring the desired results in Greece. Authorities should rather change their model of forest management, placing more emphasis on prevention and reinforcing the role of the forest service, Johann Goldammer, an international fire expert who heads the Global Fire Monitoring Center, tells Kathimerini in this interview. Goldammer, who led the scientific committee tasked with investigating the underlying causes of the 2018 Mati tragedy and submitting proposals for reforming Greek fire protection, says that attention must be given to urban sprawl into forest landscapes, as well as reviewing the types of vegetation and building regulations. The fire ecologist also calls for the greater engagement of civil society in fire prevention and fire risk management.


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## zahir (Aug 17, 2021)

The Evia Wildfire and the Museum of Illusions - The Press Project - Ειδήσεις, Αναλύσεις, Ραδιόφωνο, Τηλεόραση
					

Although in Varybobi everything is fine and it’s only the forest that’s become charcoal, in Evia we weren’t so lucky. I arrived at our house there on Thursday. Part of…




					thepressproject.gr
				





> Let me put it another way: why did the state permit violation of the evacuation order? Shouldn’t it have enforced it, if it really was a matter of life and death? The state permitted the mass, public and severe circumvention of the order precisely because it lacked the legitimacy that true necessity bestows.


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## zahir (Aug 18, 2021)

SELF-ORGANIZATION OR CHAOS – the wildfires in Greece - Anarchist Communist Group
					

A statement from the Anarchist Federation in Greece on the ongoing wildfires and the disastrous management of the Greek State.    We're on the cusp of a major environmental and social disaster. Whole regions of Greece are practically disappearing. Tens of thousands of people are losing their...




					www.anarchistcommunism.org
				





> We’re on the cusp of a major environmental and social disaster. Whole regions of Greece are practically disappearing. Tens of thousands of people are losing their livelihoods, losing all perspectives in their own country and are objectively becoming internal refugees. From the fires in Ilia in 2007, the fires in Mati in 2018 to today’s fires, we have the same pattern of destruction, the same data, the same perpetrators, the same criticism. It’s all said. Everything is known.
> 
> But we can’t ignore the fact that the situation right now is on edge. We don’t know what the next day will be like, and that’s literal. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, in a fortnight, in two months. The disaster we are experiencing right now may be the prelude to what will happen tomorrow or within a month. We can see much worse things, and what’s at stake is the very nature and quality of our lives before they’re even in the hands of patterns and state. We say this having taken into account a number of factors.
> 
> ...


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## zahir (Aug 18, 2021)

Fires still burning around Athens. This is in a different area to the earlier fires.


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## zahir (Aug 18, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 18, 2021)

Forest fire in Vilia, West Attica, out of control, raging for 3. consecutive day - Keep Talking Greece
					

For third consecutive day the forest fire is raging in Vilia, western Attica with firefighters despe




					www.keeptalkinggreece.com


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## zahir (Aug 19, 2021)




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## zahir (Aug 19, 2021)

Lessons that don't appear to have been learned from the fires in 2007.









						(PDF) LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DRAMATIC FIRES OF 2007 AND 2009 IN GREECE
					

PDF | The fire season of 2007 in Greece was the worst in the recent history of the country as it set new records in regard to damages and loss of life.... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate




					www.researchgate.net
				





> The fire season of 2007 in Greece was the worst in the recent history of the country as it set new records in regard to damages and loss of life. An account of what happened and the reasons that led to the disaster, such as extreme conditions, fuel build-up, wildland-urban interface development, citizen indifference, and poor firefighting are presented. The failure to address these problems, as evidenced by a major 2009 wildfire that burned 20000 ha a few km NE from Athens, is also discussed, leading to lessons that should be learned in order to avoid repetition of such disasters in the future.


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## zahir (Aug 20, 2021)

The Greek wildfires: What went wrong and what can be fixed?
					

An executive state and an elite whose priority is profit-making cannot lead the way in the struggle against wildfires.




					www.aljazeera.com
				





> For a third week wildfires are burning in Greece and there seems to be no end in sight for this summer of disaster. Attica is ablaze once again, this time in the southeast, and fires are burning near Sounio and northwest of Athens at Vilia.


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## zahir (Aug 23, 2021)

This is a reasonable summing up.









						Greeks fret as crises mount: Will this time be different?
					

Anger over recent wildfires has exposed a deep-seated uncertainty in Greece: ‘Based on past experience,’ said one ecological expert, ‘again nothing will change.’




					www.politico.eu


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## zahir (Aug 29, 2021)

Varoufakis on the background to this summer's fires.









						Greece's deadly wildfires were sparked by 30 years of political failure | Yanis Varoufakis
					

The climate emergency and state neglect caused this disaster, says activist Yanis Varoufakis




					www.theguardian.com


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