Fire in Evia: Critical hours in Limni - Over 20,000 acres burnt

Hours of agony for the large fire in the area of Limni, in Evia. The fire is currently raging on four main fronts, while there is a lack of assistance from the air.

The operators two planes, which flew over the burning area at first light, found lack of visibility who wouldn't allow them to make the shots and walked away. Already, a few minutes ago he arrived and a helicopter is operating in the area.

There was tension in the meeting of the Coordination Body, which ended around 9 am. The reactions from the regional governor of Central Greece, Fanis Spanos and the mayor of Mantoudiou-Limni-Agias Anna, George Tsapourniotis were intense and asked immediate intervention by air assets.

Already on the part of the Region of Sterea stood up drone over the burning area so that they can establish the actual conditions that are keeping the air assets grounded. In this way they want to determine at the same time the time when visibility conditions will improve in order to call again the Coordination of the General Secretariat for Civil Protection to send air forces.

The assessments that prevailed from all sides during the meeting of the Coordinating Body is that «the destruction of the fire will not be stopped even with the 2 or 3 air assets that may be sent to the area. The air forces need further reinforcement and immediate intervention» which was the message conveyed to the Civil Protection Coordination Body.

At the moment the fire has developed 4 large fronts and is moving towards different directions. Throughout the night the fire was climbing towards the mountains and at dawn, aided by the winds, it returned again to coastal areas.

In the village Turks is one front, the second in the area Mandarin, the third in Bubble and moves towards the Rovies now and the fourth front is on the other side in the Deep and moves to the Lake.

During the Coordinator's first assessment, the first assessment wants the burning area to have an area up to 20.000 acres, in which there are many establishments, houses, tourist accommodation and warehouses, the registration of which is starting these hours.

According to the fire brigade, 95 firefighters with 4 hiking teams, 35 vehicles and 2 aircraft are operating, but they have withdrawn due to lack of visibility. Volunteers from the regions are also assisting with water trucks and construction machinery provided by the Municipality and the Region.

As mentioned during the coordination meeting, more than 10 houses have been burned in the settlement Sapiada, where the fire crossed the firefighters' defence zone where the coastal road was and reached the sea.

They have still counted 6 burned houses in the settlement Years where the fire was also contained to the coastal road but up to there it destroyed houses on the mountain side and there are other burnt houses in the wider area and villages.

«We are talking about the absolute disaster and no one knows what will occur in the next few hours as there are no aerial means to help,» underlines the deputy mayor of Lake, speaking to the APME Argyris Liaskos.

The deputy mayor himself describes how «there are dozens of burnt houses in the villages, in the coastal areas where the fire came through. There are burnt warehouses, farms, pasture houses and people who lost their lives. Sadly, however, the destruction continues. Wherever the fire passes, it leaves nothing».

It was a nightmare night for the residents, while the estimated disaster in an area that was full of life and green, as there were many pine trees.

Firefighters and earth-moving equipment fought battles to contain the flames as the fire fronts kept changing, kept growing, kept overrunning the lines of defense. They extended from the villages of Drimonas and Kourkoulis to the settlements of Chronia and Sipiada, in a length that in a straight line exceeded 9 km.

«This absolute disaster has no precedent,» the Regional Governor of Central Greece said, speaking to AP-MPA. Fanis Spanos. The mayor of Mantoudiou-Limni-Agias Anna George Tsapourniotis, for his part, stressed that «the front is huge» and that last night «was unprecedented in the history of the region».

Hundreds of firefighters, volunteers as well as local residents, earth-moving machinery and water trucks of the municipalities and the region, all night long seemed to be lost in the vast expanse of the fire front. The flames raged in a difficult terrain and a constant regrouping of forces was required to be able to tame the fiery giant.

8 villages evacuated

«Eight villages were safely evacuated to protect human life» and «in some cases there were evacuations of villages that were probably excessive, but our main objective was and is not to endanger human lives», he explained.

Around midnight, evacuations were carried out in two more villages, Kalamoudi and Drimonas, which are 9 kilometres - in a straight line - from Sipiada, the settlement west of the lake that the flames quickly overtook to stop at the sea.

Hundreds of firefighters who moved to the area even from Thessaly and Central Greece saw many times the flames overrun the defense zones even in the mountain, towards Kourkoulis or Kalamoudi and the firebreaks set up in the last hours were not enough to contain the fire.

A total of 185 rooms, 140 in Edipsos and 45 in Chalkida, have been reserved by the Region of Central Greece in order to be able to move people who could not reach their homes or spend the night elsewhere.

By the early hours of the morning, 55 of these rooms had been used. Many preferred to be accommodated, and spent the evening with relatives or near their properties, waiting - in vain - for the green light from the police forces, who had banned traffic, to reach them.

Among those who were accommodated in rented rooms in hotels in Edipsos were holidaymakers from the Rovia camping site, as, as the deputy regional governor Elias Bourmas told APE-MPA, they had «respiratory problems and asked to be moved to safe places».