AFP UK

Out of sight, out of mind: Problems with decades-old pipes and sewers across American cities and towns are largely hidden and tend to be neglected for years before exploding into public crisis.

Last month, the Clarksburg Water Board in West Virginia announced that children from three homes were diagnosed with high lead levels, prompting the municipal authority to immediately replace pipes and launch a testing program throughout the system.

“I don’t think they know the magnitude of the problem,” said James Griffin of the West Virginia Black Heritage Festival, who organized a community meeting earlier this week with water officials.

“There’s just a whole lot of not knowing.”

The latest local water crisis surfaced as the Senate moves closer to passing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan package to address neglected maintenance on traditional infrastructure, as well as spending on clean energy and broadband internet.

Environmentalists have welcomed the bill, but say funding for water projects falls far short given the scale of the problem.

They are holding out hope that further funding will be provided in the $3.5 trillion budget package backed by President Joe Biden, which could be enacted later this year, despite Republican opposition.

“It’s a start,” Tracy Brown, regional director for water protection at Save the Sound, said of the Senate bill.

– An ‘overwhelmed’ system –

Brown’s group, which focuses on the Long Island Sound and other waterways in the states of New York and Connecticut, has been pressing local officials to address wastewater problems that regularly force local beaches to close after heavy rains.

Her group documented 164 raw sewage spills in Westchester County in suburban New York between 2010 and 2019, blaming shrinking federal support compared with the 1970s, when much of the network was built.

“The bursts are caused by breakdowns in aging and poorly maintained pipes and pumps that crack or fail,” according to a November 2020 report.

The worst incidents are in the majority-Black city of Mount Vernon, New York, less than 20 miles from Manhattan, where residents sometimes need to collect their own waste and empty it in a manhole. 

One woman told a local news show that her grandchildren call her home “the poop house.”

Catherine Coleman Flowers, a member of a White House environmental justice council, visited some of the homes last month and likened the decrepit network has created “third-world sanitation conditions.”

The city, which has been sued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency over the sewage problems, estimated a fix could cost more than $100 million.

“It’s underground,” Brown said “People want to invest in things they can see, like roads and bridges and police officers.”

– Old homes –

In West Virginia, the Clarksburg Water Board has tested 228 homes and found six instances of elevated lead levels, general manager Jason Myers said, adding that the board plans to test all 8,500 taps in its network.

The board replaced lead service lines — which run from the street to the houses — and provided bottled water to more than 500 homes with pipes suspected of containing lead.

The National Guard has been enlisted to help distribute water as well.

“We may be the first in West Virginia with this problem, but we won’t be the last,” said Myers, who is enlisting the state’s congressional delegation to win funding for a project that could cost more than $6 million.

There also could be lead in the pipes inside the houses in Clarksburg, most of which were built decades ago before experts knew that exposure to lead harmed brain and organ development in children.

“I suspect it may be fairly widespread,” said Michael McCawley, a professor at the West Virginia University School of Public Health, who said the contamination likely stems from the interaction between old pipes and water that is “a little too acidic.”

“Infrastructure is a an ongoing cost,” he said. “It is essential to have a national program, because if you leave it to the local government they will not have the tax base to maintain the infrastructure.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that addressing the lead problem nationwide will cost $45 billion. But the Senate bill includes only $15 billion for this purpose.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but we need a lot more,” said Becky Hammer, NRDC’s deputy director on federal water policy.

US authorities said Saturday they were searching for eight people missing as a huge wildfire raged in northern California, leaving two towns in little more than cinders.

The Dixie Fire, the largest active wildfire in the United States, recently became the third-largest in California history.

As of Saturday it had blackened 446,723 acres (180,782 hectares) in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813 and surpassing the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. Dixie is now 21 percent contained, the CalFire website reported.

While the fire continued to grow, officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday.

“We expect the same fire behavior as yesterday, which was fairly moderate,” Jake Cagle, a firefighter sections chief, said in a briefing Saturday.

Earlier, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, while also burning through the small town of Canyondam.

The Plumas County sheriff’s office said it had received the descriptions of eight people considered missing in Greenville and was searching for them.

– Residents refuse to leave –

As authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Law enforcement officers are asking any residents who stay for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

The Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel, CalFire said.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

A preliminary investigation has suggested the fire was started when a tree fell on a power cable owned by regional utility Pacific Gas & Company (PG&E), a private operator that was earlier blamed for the huge Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 86 people.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

US authorities said Saturday they were searching for eight people missing as a huge wildfire raged in northern California, leaving two towns in little more than cinders.

The Dixie Fire, the largest active wildfire in the United States, recently became the third-largest in California history.

As of Saturday it had blackened 446,723 acres (180,782 hectares) in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813 and surpassing the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. Dixie is now 21 percent contained, the CalFire website reported.

While the fire continued to grow, officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday.

“We expect the same fire behavior as yesterday, which was fairly moderate,” Jake Cagle, a firefighter sections chief, said in a briefing Saturday.

Earlier, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, while also burning through the small town of Canyondam.

The Plumas County sheriff’s office said it had received the descriptions of eight people considered missing in Greenville and was searching for them.

– Residents refuse to leave –

As authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Law enforcement officers are asking any residents who stay for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

The Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel, CalFire said.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

A preliminary investigation has suggested the fire was started when a tree fell on a power cable owned by regional utility Pacific Gas & Company (PG&E), a private operator that was earlier blamed for the huge Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 86 people.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

Forest fires this year have consumed more than 147,000 hectares (360,000 acres) in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz department, the regional government reported Saturday.

As in neighboring Brazil, the fires have been aggravated by widespread deforestation aimed at expanding farming or pasture land.

And they come in a year when climate change has become an increasingly urgent issue with mammoth wildfires in the Western US as well as in Greece and Turkey.

“At a departmental level, 147,254 hectares have been affected by forest fires,” Yovenka Rosado, coordinator of Santa Cruz’s Forest Fire Program, announced.

The most severely affected areas border Brazil.

Rosado said a Super Puma helicopter was being used to douse the larger fire sites with water, and emergency personnel and equipment were being deployed to key spots.

Rosado said 831 fires had been reported just in the first days of August, for a total this year of 15,555.

Each year Bolivia confronts forest-fire outbreaks started by settlers in remote areas or by agribusinesses trying to expand their production.

Bolivian NGO the Friends of Nature Foundation estimates that forest fires last year destroyed more than 2.3 million hectares of forests and grassland. 

In 2019 huge fires in Bolivia’s Amazon destroyed about 6.4 million hectares, the group said.

A vast wildfire in northern California, already the third-largest in the state’s history, continued to grow overnight but officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

The Dixie Fire has now ravaged 446,723 acres in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813. That area is larger than Los Angeles — and has surpassed the sweep of the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon.

But cooler temperatures and calmer winds moved into the area overnight in a boon to weary firefighters, the state agency Calfire said. Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday. 

The fire is now 21 percent contained.

Earlier in the week, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, though no deaths were reported. It has also burned through the small town of Canyondam, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times said that as authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge.

When that happens, law enforcement officers are asking the residents for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

Ironically, the Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached what the CalFire website calls the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

Hundreds of firefighters fought fires that have devoured record numbers of woodlands in Greece on Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but heavy rains brought respite to hard-hit Turkey.

More than 1,450 Greek firefighters backed by at least 15 aircraft were battling the blazes, with reinforcements arriving from abroad, the fire service said.

In Pefkofyto, in the north of Athens, pensioner Tasos Tsilivakos struggled to contain his tears.

“This is a horrible disaster,” he told AFP.

“I’m really afraid that maybe only our great-grand children will have the chance to walk again in these areas.”

One 62-year-old man from nearby Agios Stefanos told Alpha TV how after being evacuated he watched his house burning on television. “My child is still crying from the shock,” he said.

France and Britain said they were rushing to help Greece.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that he had spoken with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis about the crisis.

“Solidarity as Europeans always,” Macron tweeted, saying France had deployed 80 firefighters and rescue workers as well as three Canadair firefighting planes.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted Saturday that Britain is sending “a team of experienced firefighters to support Greek firefighters currently battling the huge blazes”.

Egypt is also expected to send two helicopters and Spain one Canadair plane. 

– ‘Nightmarish summer’ –

With strong winds and temperatures of up to 38 degrees C (100 F) forecast in some regions on Saturday, the blazes in Greece are expected to continue for some time. And this year’s fires have already been far more destructive than in previous years.

In the last 10 days, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average number of hectares burnt over the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares.

“When this nightmarish summer ends we will reverse the damage as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis pledged on Saturday.

Greece and Turkey have been fighting devastating fires for more than a week as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Officials and experts have linked such intense weather events to climate change.

So far, they have killed two people in Greece and eight in Turkey, with dozens more hospitalised there over 10 days.

A UN draft report seen by AFP labelled the Mediterranean region a “climate change hotspot”, warning that heatwaves, droughts and fires would become more fierce in the future, supercharged by rising temperatures.

– Rains help Turkey –

But the weather gave Turkey some relief Saturday.

Officials in the  coastal city of Antalya said the blazes were under control in the southwestern province after rainfall.

And heavy rain was expected till afternoon in areas including Manavgat, one of the most affected by the fires.

The situation remained serious however around the tourist hotspot of Mugla, where at least three neighbourhoods have been ordered to evacuate.

There have been over 200 fires in 47 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, Agriculture  Minister Bekir Pakdemirli tweeted Saturday. Thirteen of those fires in five provinces were still burning.

– Fears of more high winds –

Civil Protection deputy minister, Nikos Hardalias said Saturday that 55 blazes were raging across Greece.

They were burning on Evia, the country’s second largest island, which lies east of the capital; in the Peloponnese region in the southwest; and in Fthiotida in Central Greece.

The fire front on Evia alone ran a length of 30 kilometres (18 miles), said Fanis Spanos, regional governor of Central Greece. 

On the north of the island, another 23 were evacuated Saturday morning after 1,300 were plucked off the beaches by ferry boats the night before. Navy warships were on high alert off the coast in case more evacuations are required. 

Meanwhile officials reopened part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country.

Central Greece governor Spanos told the Athens News Agency (ANA) that more than 300 families whose homes had been burned down were being sheltered in hotels.

And the situation remained dire in Mani, in the Peloponnese, where 5,000 people were evacuated Friday. 

Eleni Drakoulakou, mayor of East Mani, told ERT TV on Saturday that half the municipality had been destroyed by the flames. She blamed a lack of water-bombing air support during the critical first hours of the wildfire. 

ANA  reported that two people had been charged for arson: a woman was arrested in Athens Friday carrying two lighters, petrol and flammable material, just after a fire broke out there.

And a 43-year-old man was arrested in Krioneri, northern Attica.

A vast wildfire in northern California, already the third-largest in the state’s history, continued to grow overnight but officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

The Dixie Fire has now ravaged 446,723 acres in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813. That area is larger than Los Angeles — and has surpassed the sweep of the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon.

But cooler temperatures and calmer winds moved into the area overnight in a boon to weary firefighters, the state agency Calfire said. Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday. 

The fire is now 21 percent contained.

Earlier in the week, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, though no deaths were reported. It has also burned through the small town of Canyondam, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times said that as authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge.

When that happens, law enforcement officers are asking the residents for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

Ironically, the Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached what the CalFire website calls the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

Hundreds of firefighters fought fires that have devoured record numbers of woodlands in Greece Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but heavy rains brought some respite to hard-hit Turkey.

More than 1,450 Greek firefighters backed by at least 15 aircraft were battling the wildfires and flare-ups, with reinforcements arriving from other countries, the fire service said.

“We are sending a team of experienced firefighters to support Greek firefighters currently battling the huge blazes,” UK Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted Saturday.

Egypt is also expected to send two helicopters and Spain one Canadair firefighting plane. 

With strong winds and temperatures of up to 38 degrees C (100 F) forecast in some regions on Saturday, the blazes in Greece are expected to continue for some time yet. And this year’s fires have already been far more destructive than in previous years.

In the last 10 days, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average number of hectares burnt over the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares.

“When this nightmarish summer ends we will reverse the damage as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged on Saturday.

In Pefkofyto, in the north of Athens, pensioner Tasos Tsilivakos struggled to contain his tears.

“This is a horrible disaster,” he told AFP.

“I’m really afraid that maybe only our great-grand children will have the chance to walk again in these areas.”

One 62-year-old man from nearby Agios Stefanos told Alpha TV how after being evacuated he had had to watch his house burning on television. “My child is still crying from the shock,” he said.

– Rains help Turkey –

Greece and Turkey have been fighting devastating fires for more than a week as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Officials and experts have linked such intense weather events to climate change.

So far, they have killed two people in Greece and eight in Turkey, with dozens more hospitalised there during 10 days of the blazes.

A UN draft report seen by AFP labelled the Mediterranean region a “climate change hotspot”, warning that heatwaves, droughts and fires would become more fierce in the future, supercharged by rising temperatures.

But the weather gave Turkey some relief Saturday.

Officials in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya said the blazes were under control in the southwestern province after rainfall there.

And heavy rainfall was expected to continue until the afternoon in areas including Manavgat, one of the most affected by the fires.

The situation remained serious however around the tourist hotspot of Mugla, where at least three neighbourhoods have been ordered to evacuate.

There have been over 200 fires in 47 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli tweeted early on Saturday. Thirteen of those fires in five provinces are still burning.

– Fears of more high winds –

Greek Civil Protection deputy minister, Nikos Hardalias said Saturday that 55 blazes were raging across Greece.

They were burning on Evia, the country’s second largest island, which lies east of the capital; in the Peloponnese region in the southwest; and in Fthiotida in Central Greece.

The fire front on Evia alone ran across 30 kilometres (18 miles) long, said Fanis Spanos, regional governor of Central Greece. 

On the north of the island, another 23 were evacuated Saturday morning after 1,300 were plucked off the beaches by ferry boats the night before. Navy warships were on high alert off the coast in case more evacuations required. 

In the Attica peninsula the situation was “more stable” as there were no strong wind in the area. 

Meanwhile officials reopened part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country.

Central Greece regional governor Fanis Spanos told the Athens News Agency (ANA) that more than 300 families whose homes had been burned down were being sheltered in hotels.

And the situation remained dire in Mani, in the Peloponnese, where 5,000 people were evacuated Friday. 

Eleni Drakoulakou, the mayor of East Mani, told ERT TV on Saturday that half the municipality had been destroyed by the flames. She blamed a lack of water-dropping air support during the critical first hours of the wildfire. 

In Ilia, in western Peloponnese, more villages were evacuated. 

ANA meanwhile reported that two people had been charged for arson: a woman was arrested in Athens Friday carrying two lighters, petrol and flammable material, just after a fire broke out there.

Also Friday, a 43-year-old man was arrested in Krioneri, northern Attica.

Hundreds of firefighters fought wildfires and flare-ups that have devoured record numbers of woodlands in Greece Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but heavy rains brought some respite to hard-hit Turkey.

More than 1,450 Greek firefighters backed by at least 15 aircraft were battling the fires, with reinforcements arriving from other countries, the fire service said.

The blazes in Greece are set to continue, with strong winds and temperatures of up to 38 degrees C (100 F) forecast in some regions on Saturday.

This year’s fires have been far more destructive than in previous years.

In the last 10 days, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average number of hectares burnt over the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares.

“When this nightmarish summer ends we will reverse the damage as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged on Saturday.

In Pefkofyto, in the north of Athens, pensioner Tasos Tsilivakos struggled to contain his tears.

“This is a horrible disaster,” he told AFP.

“I’m really afraid that maybe only our great-grand children will have the chance to walk again in these areas.”

One 62-year-old man from nearby Agios Stefanos told Alpha TV how after being evacuated he had had to watch his house burning on television. “My child is still crying from the shock,” he said.

– Rains help Turkey –

Greece and Turkey have been fighting devastating fires for more than a week as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Officials and experts have linked such intense weather events to climate change.

So far, they have killed two people in Greece and eight in Turkey, with dozens more hospitalised there during 10 days of the blazes.

A UN draft report seen by AFP labelled the Mediterranean region a “climate change hotspot”, warning that heatwaves, droughts and fires would become more fierce in the future, supercharged by rising temperatures.

But the weather gave Turkey some respite Saturday. Officials in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya said the blazes were under control in the southwestern province after rainfall there.

And heavy rainfall was expected to continue until the afternoon in areas including Manavgat, one of the most affected by the fires.

The situation remained serious however around the tourist hotspot of Mugla, where at least three neighbourhoods have been ordered to evacuate.

There have been over 200 fires in 47 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli tweeted early on Saturday. Thirteen fires continue in five provinces.

– Fears of more high winds –

Greek Civil Protection deputy minister, Nikos Hardalias said on Saturday that 55 blazes were raging across Greece.

They were burning on Evia, the country’s second largest island, which lies east of the capital; in the Peloponnese region in the southwest; and in Fthiotida in Central Greece.

The fire front on Evia alone ran across 30 kilometres (18 miles) long, said Fanis Spanos, regional governor of Central Greece, but in Attica peninsula there the situation was “more stable”.

There is, however, concern as winds are expected to pick up pace later in the day, the Fire Brigade said. 

Part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country that had been shut down as a precaution was reopened Saturday.

In the northern Evia, where more than 1,300 people fled the fires on ferry boats Friday from the coastal village of Limni, another 23 were evacuated Saturday morning from a nearby beach at Rovies. 

Navy warships are on high alert off the north of the island in case more evacuations are required.

Local officials there have already called for more air support in the firefighting efforts warning for hundreds of homeless families.

Fanis Spanos told the Athens News Agency (ANA) that more than 300 families whose homes had been burned down were being sheltered in hotels.

The situation remained dire in Mani, in the Peloponnese, where 5,000 people were evacuated on Friday. 

Eleni Drakoulakou, the mayor of East Mani, told ERT TV on Saturday that half the town had been burnt, blaming a lack of water-dropping air support during the critical first hours of the wildfire. 

ANA also reported that two people had been charged for arson.

In Athens, police arrested a woman in a park on Friday as she was carrying two lighters, petrol and flammable materials, a few minutes after a fire broke out there.

Authorities have banned visits to parks and forests through Greece.

A 43-year-old man was arrested in the area of Krioneri and charged with arson, according to ANA.

Thousands of tourists and residents were evacuated and a thick cloud of smoke and ash hung over Athens as “nightmarish” forest fires raged in Greece Saturday, while heavy rains brought some relief to neighbouring Turkey.

At least 1,450 Greek firefighters along with 15 aircraft were battling the infernos, with reinforcements arriving from other countries, the fire service said.

The blazes in Greece are set to continue, with strong winds and temperatures of up to 38 degrees C (100 F) forecast in some regions on Saturday.

As of August 5, the areas burnt were 180 percent more than the average for the period 2008-2020, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

“When this nightmarish summer ends we will reverse the damage as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged on Saturday.

Greece and Turkey have been fighting devastating fires for more than a week as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Officials and experts have linked such intense weather events to climate change.

A UN draft report seen by AFP labelled the Mediterranean region a “climate change hotspot”, warning that heatwaves, droughts and fires would become more fierce in the future, supercharged by rising temperatures.

The fires have killed two people in Greece, including Konstantinos Michalos, the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He was found unconscious in a factory in Krioneri near Athens and was later confirmed dead in hospital.

In Turkey, eight people have been killed and dozens more hospitalised during 10 days of fires.

– Rain in Turkey –

But officials in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya said the blazes were under control in the southwestern province, where it was raining on Saturday.

Heavy rainfall was expected to continue until the afternoon in areas including Manavgat, one of the most affected by the fires.

However, the situation appears to be serious still around the tourist hotspot of Mugla, where firefighting efforts continue and at least three neighbourhoods have been ordered to evacuate. 

There have been over 200 fires in 47 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli tweeted early on Saturday. Thirteen fires continue in five provinces.

The Greek fire service said Saturday blazes were raging in the Attica peninsula that includes Athens, in Evia, the country’s second largest island and located east of the capital, and the Peloponnese region in the southwest.

North of Athens, a fierce blaze tore through vast areas of pine forest, forcing yet more evacuations of villages overnight and blowing thick, choking smoke and ash all over the Greek capital.

Part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country has been shut down as a precaution and migrant camps were evacuated.

– Arson suspects held –

In the Evia village of Limni, more than 1,300 people fled the fires on ferry boats. Another 23 were evacuated Saturday morning from the beach at Rovies.

Local authorities on the island called for more air support in the firefighting efforts. 

Around 5,000 tourists and residents were also forced to flee another fire in the Peloponnese region. 

Eleni Drakoulakou, the mayor of East Mani, told ERT TV on Saturday that 50 percent of the Peloponnese town has been burnt, blaming a lack of water-dropping air support during the critical first hours of the wildfire. 

Meanwhile, the ANA news agency said two people were being held on suspicion of arson.

In Athens, police arrested a woman in a park on Friday as she was carrying two lighters, petrol and flammable materials, a few minutes after a fire broke out there.

Authorities have banned visits to parks and forests through Greece, according to ANA.

A 43-year-old man was arrested in the area of Krioneri and charged with arson, according to ANA.