ǿմý

Skip to main content

Firefighters, residents dealing with massive wildfire damage on Greece's Evia Island

Share
toronto -

Improved weather conditions have allowed firefighters to control the devastating wildfires on Greece’s Evia Island, but the volatile situation can change in an instant.

While it is still upwards of 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the southwestern Greek island, the wind has calmed down, which has helped firefighters on the ground.

“I don't know the whole situation, I know it's improved,” Nick Dukhich, a firefighter from Ukraine, told CTV News.

Dukhich is one of 900 firefighters from across Europe and the Mideast who’ve been brought in to tame the blazes on Evia Islandthat have destroyed 50,000 hectares in the northern region alone.

Evia Island, an area known for its beehives and olive production, has been reduced to ashes in some areas.

“You should have seen my village before,” one man told CTV News in Greek. “There were so many old trees and now nothing.”

The fires began last week in Greece after the country’s worst heatwave in decades left the countryside bone dry.

With the larger fires mostly under control, the firefighters on the ground and helicopters in the air are focused on containing the smaller ones, where every patch of smoke could escalate quickly.

Evia Island isn’t the only area of Greece dealing with devastating forest fires. Some 600 firefighters have been deployed to Olympia and Arcadia, on mainland Greece. Some homes in the region are still burning, according to reports from local state TV.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, Algeria has become a new disaster zone for wildfiresthat have already claimed the lives of at least 65 people, including 28 military personnel.

“I can't tell you we're beating the fire, but we're fighting it with everything we have,” one firefighter said in Arabic.

Substantial wildfires are also burning in Italy and Turkey, claiming the lives of 12 people in total.

With files from The Associated Press

CTVNews.ca ǿմý

Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.

Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.

The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

Advocates have identified the woman who died this week after being shot by police in Surrey, B.C., as a South American refugee who was raising a young daughter.

Provincial police investigating the death of a cat that was allegedly set on fire in Orillia earlier this week released surveillance video of a person of interest in the case.

Local Spotlight

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.