ENORMOUS wildfires have spread across British tourist hotspots as thousands have been evacuated from hotels.
Holidaymakers are fleeing Greece’s Zakynthos and Kefalonia islands “by the minute” as fires continue to rip through the Mediterranean.
AFPFirefighters work to extinguish a wildfire near the city of Patras, western Greece[/caption]
AFPRescue services have been battling the wild blaze for days[/caption]
AFPA firefighter airplane flies over a wildfire near the village of Abejera, Zamora province[/caption]
APA man was seen fleeing the inferno with his sheep in Patras city[/caption]
Around 5,000 firefighters have been battling the ravaging inferno with the support of 45 planes and helicopters.
In popular party-resort Laganas, officials ordered young Brit revellers to leave hotels as a “precautionary measure” after the fires shot clouds of black smoke over the area.
One local official spoke of “an unending nightmare” as houses, farms and factories in the city of Patras and large parts of northern and central Greece have been devastated by the flames.
Meanwhile, some 15 firefighters were injured overnight while hundreds of locals and tourists are being treated for respiratory problems in hospital.
Fire brigade spokesperson, Vasillis Vathrakogiannis said: “It will be another very difficult day, as the wildfire risk for most of the country’s regions will be very high.”
And in western Patras, the country’s third biggest city, hundreds of tourists were evacuated from their holiday homes.
In a scene he likened to “doomsday”, Giorgos Karavanis, a volunteer firefighter said: “We came from Athens with our volunteer association Kleisthenis, we can’t do anything more.
He added: “May God help us and help people here.”
Meanwhile on Chios island, in the northern Aegean, the coast guard was forced to rescue tourists and residents by boat as the wildfires raged towards coastal areas.
The fire on Zakynthos and Kefalonia is the latest in a series of bushfires scientists warn are being driven by global warming.
Earlier this week, the Keatea region, south of Athens was decimated by raging wildfires with up to 16,000 acres of land decimated.
An elderly man was found dead inside his bed by firefighters who have been tirelessly battling against the numerous blazes.
More than 260 firefighters with nearly 80 fire engines along with 12 aircraft were deployed near Keratea.
Dimitris Loukas, mayor of the city of nearby Lavrio, said the Keratea fire destroyed dozens of homes, agriculture and forest land.
Meanwhile, last month on the island of Kythera, authorities evacuated the villages of Aroniadika, Pitsinades and Aryoi.
In the area of Messinia, west of Athens, residents of the Kryoneri and Sellas villages were also told to leave.
APA tree glows in the flames amid billows of black smoke[/caption]
Residents try to stop a wildfire from burning a house near the city of PatrasAFP
These sites were on a list of Greek regions on high alert for wildfires due to record-breaking temperatures and strong winds.
Temperatures in Greece were forecast to reach up to 44 degrees Celsius on Saturday, the Greek weather service said.
Wildfires, many of them destructive, have become a common occurrence in Greece in recent years
Greece and other Mediterranean countries are in an area dubbed “a wildfire hotspot” by scientists, with blazes becoming increasingly more common.
Some 1,500 people were evacuated after raging wildfires spread across Crete earlier this month.
The night sky turned orange as the burning blazes left a trail of destruction on the popular island.
Evacuations were ordered at three sites outside the port of Ierapetra on the island’s south coast, authorities said.
Homes were reportedly damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds.
AFPFire crew try to battle the flames in the city of Patras[/caption]
APLocals were seen fleeing their homes as the fire tore through villages[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
