AFP UK

Alexander Fyodorov peered out his office window towards the vast forests where wildfires had been raging for weeks around the Siberian city of Yakutsk.

It was a rare day for this summer — for once the sky in the world’s coldest city was not shrouded in a sepia orange toxic smog, produced by the third straight year of increasingly massive blazes.

In Yakutia, known as Sakha in its Turkic language, many believe that nature is a living spirit that will maintain harmony with humanity. 

But Fyodorov warned against what he called a false trust.

“What nature herself has shown — last year, this year — is a reminder that we shouldn’t put our hopes in nature,” said Fyodorov, the deputy director of the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk.

“We need to start preparing.”

Yakutia, which has a border with the Arctic Ocean and sits atop permafrost on a territory nearly five times the size of France, is a canary in the coal mine for the global climate crisis, says Fyodorov.

The region has seen its annual average temperature warm by 3 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the 20th century — 2 degrees more than the average for the planet — and this summer saw several days with record heat of 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit).

While it is difficult to link individual fires directly to climate change, global heating makes blazes more likely as harsher and longer droughts dry out regions to create ideal fire conditions, experts say.

And with this summer Yakutia’s driest in 150 years, according to local officials, the region became a tinderbox that has seen wildfires tear through more than 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of its swampy taiga forest.

“The current fires are beating every record,” Alexander Isayev, a wildfire expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Yakutsk, told AFP.

– ‘Uncharacteristic fires’ –

With over a month left in Siberia’s annual wildfire season, officials have rushed to calm the blazes, sending in the military and seeding clouds to produce rain.

But in Yakutia — a region of just under one million people — the bulk of the work has fallen to thousands of weary firefighters and local volunteers, working with thin resources. 

Nikita Andreyev, head of the Gorniy district that has seen some of Yakutia’s largest fires this season, told AFP that the region only receives six rubles (8 US cents) per hectare from the federal budget — far from enough. 

That means that dozens of blazes are left to burn untended, with the priority placed on protecting settlements rather than stopping fires from burning at all.

“We didn’t have enough manpower and resources for these fires,” Andreyev said. “It’s necessary in our view for finances to be allocated in this direction.”

Critics say that Russia — which is home to one-fifth of the world’s forests — must spend more money to fight wildfires not only in Yakutia but across the country.

According to Russia’s forestry agency, more than 11.5 million hectares have burned across the country since the start of the year — well beyond the annual average since 2000 of 8.9 million hectares. 

From Siberia to the Urals and the region of Karelia in its northwest, Russia has seen “uncharacteristic fires” this season, said Grigory Kuksin, head of Greenpeace’s wildfire unit in the country.

“There has been higher heat and more dryness in these places than expected,” he said.

“It’s clearly the effects of climate change.”

The unfolding crisis was what drove Turgun Popov, 50, to rally his athletics club in Yakutsk to volunteer to help fight the blazes outside the city. 

“We have to realise that to preserve nature is to preserve our future — the future of our kids,” he said.

– ‘Dragons will wake’ –

Beyond releasing vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and destroying material for absorbing it, Fyodorov said the blazes could eventually help trigger the mass melting of Yakutia’s already-thawing permafrost.

And given that permafrost contains twice as much greenhouse gases as the atmosphere, that could be a disastrous trigger in further driving climate change, he said.

“This will be unhealthy for the whole world — for everyone,” Fyodorov said.

In breaks from fighting the blazes, some locals in Yakutia have conducted prayer rituals to induce rain for some respite.

Heavy showers finally arrived on a recent July day, but 48 hours later they gave way to heat and strong winds that whipped at the embers. 

Outside the village of Byas-Kyuel in the Gorniy district, 29-year-old firefighter Andrei Yevdokimov observed the damp but still smoking forest floor.

The rain had not fallen long enough, he said, predicting that the blazes would come roaring back.

“No matter what, the dragons will wake,” he said. 

Crushed by a devastating drought and new water restrictions, Daniel Hartwig had no choice but to pull thousands of precious, fragrant almond trees from his California farm. 

“It breaks your heart,” he sighed as he surveyed the once vibrant landscape before him — curled, yellowed leaves covering the shrunken husks that would have been this year’s crop of almonds, had the water arrived.

Their exposed roots are already starting to turn powdery with rot, and the temperature of almost 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) on this summer morning speeds their decomposition. 

Moving among them are huge machines that will turn Hartwig’s “beautiful prime almond trees” into large piles of woodchips.

– ‘Brutal Shock’ –

“It’s a sudden brutal shock,” the farmer said. 

Hartwig is in charge of water management for the mega-property of Woolf Farms, an estate of over 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) around the small market town of Huron.

This is the first time that the farm has had to uproot so many trees before they reach the end of their life.

From drip irrigation systems to cutting-edge sensors installed throughout the property, everything has been designed to optimize the use of water.

But almond trees are very thirsty, and this is a valley that is sorely lacking in water. 

After several years of very low rainfall and a particularly dry winter, California authorities turned off the tap to agricultural producers. In April, after a series of calculations, the farm had to face the hard facts.

“There is not enough water on the market” to keep the almond trees alive, Hartwig said. “It’s surely painful to make those changes.” 

And for good reason: The California almond market is worth nearly $6 billion a year.

– ‘Bad Guys’ –

California produces 80 percent of the almonds consumed worldwide, a market that has doubled in 15 years driven by demand for substitutes for animal products, such as almond milk. 

Woolf Farms almonds travel as far as India or Australia. But is that era now over?

“There is a perception that farmers are here to waste water,” said Hartwig, his hands tucked into his jean pockets. “It makes us sound like we are the bad guys.”

To irrigate the crops they have managed to preserve, Woolf Farms pumps water found deep underground. 

“I’m very proud that we can feed the world from here,” he said.

“If we don’t have the tools to be able to do that, where is that food going to come from?” he asked.

Driving through the estate, which stretches as far as the eye can see, Hartwig pointed to a series of fallow fields.

“Almost all of this would’ve been farm,” he said. “Now it’s just a patchwork of crops.”

He sighed. “We’ve done as much as we can.”

Turkish rescuers on Thursday began evacuating hundreds of villagers by sea after a deadly wildfire engulfed the outer edges of a thermal power plant storing thousands of tonnes of coal.

An AFP team saw firefighters and police fleeing the 35-year-old Kemerkoy plant in the Aegean province of Mugla as bright balls of orange flame tore through the surrounding hills.

Hundreds of local villages — many clutching small bags of belongings grabbed from their abandoned houses as the evacuation call sounded — began piling onto coastguard speedboats at the nearby port of Oren.

The regional authority said “all explosive chemicals” and other hazardous material had been removed from the strategic site.

“But there’s a risk that the fire could spread to the thousands of tonnes of coal inside,” regional mayor Osman Gurun told reporters.

Local officials said hydrogen tanks used to cool the station had been emptied and filled with water as a precaution.

Turkish news reports said most of the coal had been moved from the plant to a storage site five kilometres (three miles) away as a precaution when the blaze first approached the region at the start of the week.

More than 180 wildfires have scorched huge swathes of forest and killed eight people since breaking out along almost the entire perimeter of Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.

The European Union’s satellite monitoring service said their “radiative power” — a measure of the fires’ intensity — “has reached unprecedented values in the entire dataset, which goes back to 2003”.

– ‘No room for politics’ –

The fires’ strength and scale have exposed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to days of criticism for what some observers say has been his sluggish response to the crisis.

Erdogan had just begun a live television interview about the fires as news broke about the evacuation of the plant.

He acknowledged that the efforts of firefighters to save the station were failing in the face of “tremendous wind” fanning the flames.

But he also lashed out at opposition leaders for trying to score political points by questioning his governments’ readiness and response.

“When fires break out in America or Russia, (the opposition) stands by the government,” said Erdogan.

“Like elsewhere in the world, there has been a big increase in the forest fires in our country. There should be no room for politics here.”

The Turkish government appears to have been caught off guard by the scale and ferocity of the flames.

Its media watchdog on Tuesday warned broadcasters that they might be fined if they continue showing live footage of the blazes or air images of screaming people running for their lives.

Most rolling news channels dropped their coverage of the unfolding disaster until the fire reached the power plant.

– Temperature record broken –

Erdogan himself has been subjected to days of ridicule on social media after he tossed bags of tea to crowds of people while touring one of the affected regions under heavy police escort. 

The opposition has also accused the powerful Turkish leader of being too slow to accept offers of foreign assistance — including from regional rival Greece — and for having failed to properly maintain firefighting planes.

Erdogan’s office blamed the very first blazes near Antalya on arsonists, which pro-government media linked to banned Kurdish militants waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

But more and more public officials now link them to an extreme heatwave that has dried up reservoirs and created tinderbox conditions across much of Turkey’s south.

Experts have warned that climate change in countries such as Turkey increases both the frequency and intensity of wildfires. The government of neighbouring Greece has directly linked devastating fires there, which covered the capital Athens in smoke on Wednesday, to global warming.

Turkey’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said temperatures in the Aegean city of Marmaris had reached an all-time record of 45.5 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Farenheit) this week.

“We are fighting a very serious war,” the minister told reporters. “I urge everyone to be patient.”

At least 150 houses were destroyed by a raging fire that surrounded a monastery and a dozen villages on the Greek island of Evia Wednesday, one of over 100 blazes burning in the country.

Firefighters were also battling a blaze near Athens, while the mayor of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, pleaded for help as flames threatened the site.

The blazes erupted as Greece is in the grip of a heatwave.

“We’re waging a battle of the titans!” deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias told journalists. “The hardest is still to come.”

On Evia, the huge flames leaping up from the forest could be seen from the sea. Firefighters said it was a difficult blaze to control on an island of rolling hills with little visibility.

Three monks from Saint David Monastery had refused to leave, they added, but everyone had been evacuated from nearby villages.

“We’re suffocating due to the smoke,” one of the monks told the ANA news agency by phone, describing flames of 30 to 40 metres (100 to 130 feet) high surrounding the monastery.

Police told AFP they would force the monks to evacuate if their lives were in danger. Around 85 people gathered on a beach were evacuated on five boats.

Some 100 firefighters backed by seven helicopters and water-bombing planes were fighting the blaze, civil protection officers said.

But local politicians denounced the lack of resources.

“We are asking the authorities to reinforce the air and land forces to so as not to risk human lives,” Giorgos Tsapourniotis, the mayor of Limni, told ANA news agency. 

And Argyris Liaskos, deputy mayor of Mantoudiou told Skai TV that no air support had been deployed there to tackle the fires. “At least 150 houses have burned,” he said.

“There are two main fronts which are uncontrollable and several other smaller ones,” Dimitris Vourdanos, deputy governor of the region, told the Kathimerini newspaper.

The authorities said three firefighters had been slightly hurt.

– Acrid smoke over Athens –

According to Hardalias, Greece has faced a total of 118 fires in the last 24 hours as temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Evia island is some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away from Athens, where more than 500 firefighters, a dozen water-bombing planes and five helicopters battled another wildfire on the outskirts of the city.

The blaze started on Tuesday in a pine forest at the foot of Mount Parnitha, one of three ranges that surround the Greek capital, sending plumes of dark, acrid smoke over Athens and leaving carcasses of burnt-out houses in its wake.

Around a dozen houses have been destroyed in the flames, and dozens of businesses, bars and holiday accommodation severely damaged in the suburb of Varybombi, 30 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of Athens, officials said.

But by Wednesday afternoon, the blaze was coming under control, Hardalias said.

Authorities in Athens have recommended residents stay indoors and wear a mask to protect against the ash and smoke.

Dozens of people had contacted the emergency services complaining of breathing difficulties.

– ‘Climate threat’ –

Over in Olympia, around 100 firefighters were battling the blaze, aided by three helicopters and two planes.

“Everything that can be done to protect from the flames the museum and the archaeological site, where the Olympic games started, has been done,” said Culture Minister Lina Mendoni Wednesday evening.

But Wednesday night, the fire advanced closer to the site.

“The firefighters are waging a big battle to prevent the fire from reaching the archeological site,” area official Vassilis Giannopoulos told ANA.

Earlier, the mayor of Olympia, Giorgos Georgopoulos, had called for more aerial support.

The European Union’s crisis management commissioner said it would help, and Cyprus and Sweden were both sending two water-bombing planes to help battle the fires.

Neighbouring Turkey is also suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, claiming the lives of eight people and forcing hundreds to evacuate in southern areas popular with tourists.

Experts have warned that global warming is increasing both the frequency and intensity of such fires. 

A thermal power plant and its surrounding town on the Aegean Sea were being evacuated on Wednesday as a deadly wildfire that has ravaged Turkey for the past week engulfed its outer edge.

An AFP team saw firefighters and police fleeing the 35-year-old Kemerkoy plant in the hillside Aegean province of Mugla.

The defence ministry said it was evacuating villagers by sea as bright balls of orange flames tore through the hills encircling the plant.

The regional municipality said “all explosive chemicals” and other hazardous material had been removed from the strategic site.

“But there’s a risk that the fire could spread to the thousands of tonnes of coal inside,” regional mayor Osman Gurun told reporters.

Local officials said hydrogen tanks used to cool the station had been emptied and filled with water as a precaution.

Turkish television images showed flames lapping power lines and running along the main road leading into town.

More than 180 wildfires have scorched huge swathes of forest and killed eight people since breaking out along almost the entire perimeter of Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.

The European Union’s satellite monitoring service said their “radiative power” — a measure of the fires’ intensity — “has reached unprecedented values in the entire dataset, which goes back to 2003”.

– ‘No room for politics’ –

The fires’ strength and scale have exposed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to days of criticism for what some observers say has been his sluggish response to the crisis.

Erdogan had just begun a live television interview about the fires as news broke about the evacuation of the plant.

He acknowledged that the efforts of firefighters to save the station were failing in the face of “tremendous wind” fanning the flames.

An AFP team confirmed that strong gusts of wind were spreading the flames, meaning flashpoints were reappearing in places where the fires had been put out only hours earlier.

Erdogan lashed out at Turkey’s opposition leaders for trying to score political points by questioning his governments’ readiness and response.

“When fires break out in America or Russia, (the opposition) stands by the government,” Erdogan fumed.

“Like elsewhere in the world, there has been a big increase in the forest fires in our country. There should be no room for politics here.”

– Temperature record broken –

The Turkish government appears to have been rattled by the scale and ferocity of the flames.

Its media watchdog on Tuesday warned broadcasters that they might be fined if they continue showing live footage of the blazes or air images of screaming people running for their lives.

Most rolling news channels dropped their coverage of the unfolding disaster until the fire reached the power plant.

Erdogan himself has been subjected to days of ridicule on social media after he tossed bags of tea to crowds of people while touring one of the affected regions under heavy police escort. 

The opposition has also accused the powerful Turkish leader of being too slow to accept offers of foreign assistance — including from regional rival Greece — and for having failed to properly maintain firefighting planes.

Erdogan’s office blamed the very first blazes near Antalya on arsonists, which pro-government media linked to banned Kurdish militants waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

But more and more public officials now link them to an extreme heatwave that has dried up reservoirs and created tinderbox conditions across much of Turkey’s south.

Experts have warned that climate change in countries such as Turkey increases both the frequency and intensity of wildfires. The government of neighbouring Greece has directly linked devastating fires there, which covered the capital Athens in smoke on Wednesday, to global warming.

Turkey’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said temperatures in the Aegean city of Marmaris reached an all-time record of 45.5 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Farenheit) this week.

“We are fighting a very serious war,” the minister told reporters. “I urge everyone to be patient.”

At least 150 houses were destroyed by a raging fire that surrounded a monastery and a dozen villages on the Greek island of Evia Wednesday, one of over 100 blazes burning in the country.

Firefighters were also battling a blaze near Athens, while the mayor of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, pleaded for help as flames threatened the site.

The blazes erupted as Greece is in the grip of a heatwave.

“We’re waging a battle of the titans!” deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias told journalists. “The hardest is still to come.”

On Evia, the huge flames leaping up from the forest could be seen from the sea. Firefighters said it was a difficult blaze to control on an island of rolling hills with little visibility.

Three monks from Saint David Monastery had refused to leave, they added, but everyone had been evacuated from nearby villages.

“We’re suffocating due to the smoke,” one of the monks told the ANA news agency by phone, describing flames of 30 to 40 metres (100 to 130 feet) high surrounding the monastery.

Police told AFP they would force the monks to evacuate if their lives were in danger. Around 85 people gathered on a beach were evacuated on five boats.

Some 100 firefighters backed by seven helicopters and water-bombing planes were fighting the blaze, civil protection officers said.

But local politicians denounced the lack of resources.

“We are asking the authorities to reinforce the air and land forces to so as not to risk human lives,” Giorgos Tsapourniotis, the mayor of Limni, told ANA news agency. 

And Argyris Liaskos, deputy mayor of Mantoudiou told Skai TV that no air support had been deployed there to tackle the fires. “At least 150 houses have burned,” he said.

“There are two main fronts which are uncontrollable and several other smaller ones,” Dimitris Vourdanos, deputy governor of the region, told the Kathimerini newspaper.

The authorities said three firefighters had been slightly hurt.

– Acrid smoke over Athens –

According to Hardalias, Greece has faced a total of 118 fires in the last 24 hours as temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Evia island is some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away from Athens, where more than 500 firefighters, a dozen water-bombing planes and five helicopters battled another wildfire on the outskirts of the city.

The blaze started on Tuesday in a pine forest at the foot of Mount Parnitha, one of three ranges that surround the Greek capital, sending plumes of dark, acrid smoke over Athens and leaving carcasses of burnt-out houses in its wake.

Around a dozen houses have been destroyed in the flames, and dozens of businesses, bars and holiday accommodation have been severely damaged in the suburb of Varybombi, 30 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of Athens, officials said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the blaze was coming under control, Hardalias said.

Authorities in Athens have recommended residents stay indoors and wear a mask to protect against the ash and smoke.

Dozens of people had contacted the emergency services complaining of breathing difficulties.

– ‘Climate threat’ –

Over in Olympia, around 100 firefighters were battling the blaze, aided by three helicopters and two planes.

“Everything that can be done to protect from the flames the museum and the archaeological site, where the Olympic games started, has been done,” said Culture Minister Lina Mendoni Wednesday evening.

“The protection system against the fires is working well,” she added. “The firefighters and the civil protection (ministry) are coordinating well.”

Earlier however, the mayor of Olympia, Giorgos Georgopoulos, called for back-up. “We need more aerial support,” he said.

The European Union’s crisis management commissioner said it would help, and Cyprus and Sweden were both sending two water-bombing planes to help battle the fires.

Neighbouring Turkey is also suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, claiming the lives of eight people and forcing hundreds to evacuate in southern areas popular with tourists.

Experts have warned that global warming is increasing both the frequency and intensity of such fires. 

Hardalias said earlier in the week that “we are no longer talking about climate change but about a climate threat”.

A thermal power plant on the Aegean Sea was evacuated on Wednesday as a deadly wildfire that has ravaged Turkey for the past week reached its outer edge.

An AFP team saw firefighters and police fleeing the plant near the hillside town of Milas, while orange flames lapped at the station’s gate as night fell.

“The plant is now being completely emptied,” the mayor of Milas, Muhammet Tokat tweeted.

Earlier, local officials said hydrogen tanks used to cool the station had been emptied and filled with water as a precaution.

Officials told AFP that the plant operates using coal and fuel oil. It was still believed to be hooked up to Turkey’s energy grid when the fire reached its gates.

More than 180 wildfires have scorched huge swathes of forest and killed eight people since breaking out east of the Mediterranean vacation hotspot Antalya last Wednesday, then spreading west.

The European Union’s satellite monitoring service said their “radiative power” — a measure of the fires’ intensity — “has reached unprecedented values in the entire dataset, which goes back to 2003”.

– ‘No room for politics’ –

The fires’ strength and scale have exposed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to days of criticism for what some observers say has been his sluggish response to the crisis.

Erdogan had just begun a live television interview about the fires as news broke about the evacuation of the plant.

He acknowledged that the efforts of firefighters to save the station were failing in the face of “tremendous wind” fanning the flames.

An AFP team confirmed that strong gusts of wind were spreading the flames, meaning flashpoints were reappearing in places where the fires had been put out only hours earlier.

Erdogan lashed out at Turkey’s opposition leaders for trying to score political points by questioning his governments’ readiness and response.

Other countries besides Turkey were having similar forest fire problems as a record heatwave grips Europe’s southeast, he argued.

Turkey’s neighbour Greece is also being ravaged by flames, which officials blame on a heatwave caused by climate change.

“Forest fires are an international threat just like the Covid-19 pandemic,” Erdogan said.

“Like elsewhere in the world, there has been a big increase in the forest fires in our country. There should be no room for politics here.”

– Rattled –

The Turkish government appears to have been rattled by the scale and ferocity of the flames.

Its media watchdog on Tuesday warned broadcasters that they might be fined if they continue showing live footage of the blazes or air images of screaming people running for their lives.

Most rolling news channels were only showing sporadic reports about the unfolding disaster on Wednesday afternoon.

Erdogan himself has been subjected to days of ridicule on social media after he tossed bags of tea to crowds of people while touring one of the affected regions under heavy police escort. 

The opposition has also accused the powerful Turkish leader of being too slow to accept offers of foreign assistance — including from regional rival Greece — and for having failed to properly maintain firefighting planes.

– ‘Be patient’ –

Erdogan’s office blamed the very first blazes near Antalya on arsonists, which pro-government media linked to banned Kurdish militants waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

But more and more public officials now link them to an extreme heatwave that has dried up reservoirs and created tinderbox conditions across much of Turkey’s south.

Experts have warned that climate change in countries such as Turkey increases both the frequency and intensity of wildfires.

Turkey’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said temperatures in the Aegean city of Marmaris reached an all-time record of 45.5 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Farenheit) this week.

“We are fighting a very serious war,” the minister told reporters. “I urge everyone to be patient.”

“Last night was hell”: Standing in front of his burnt warehouse, in the midst of charred pine trees, Christos Sfetsas deplores the “enormous damage” in his village on the outskirts of Athens, ravaged by one of dozens of wildfires hitting Greece.

The blaze started on Tuesday in a pine forest at the foot of Mount Parnitha, one of three ranges that surround the Greek capital, sending plumes of dark, acrid smoke over Athens and leaving carcasses of burnt-out houses in its wake.

Like hundreds of other locals, Sfetsas was ordered to leave his home in Varybombi on Tuesday as the fire spread on four fronts and was fast getting out of control.

“The damage is huge,” Sfetsas, in his seventies, said as he returned on Wednesday.

“The flames came very near our house but luckily it wasn’t damaged.”

Some 30 kilometres north of Athens, Varybombi is a green village popular with residents in the capital wanting to escape the pollution.

“Once a paradise,” it has been devastated, Sfetsas says.

The blaze spread quickly. “Within half-an-hour, it was disaster.”

Smoke rises from the ruins of what were once tavernas, businesses and homes. Cars, pines are charred.

More than 300 people were evacuated from Varybombi and two other neighbouring villages on Tuesday evening and police said they came to the rescue of 70 people surrounded by flames.

There were no victims, and on Wednesday afternoon, deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias said the blaze was coming under control.

According to Hardalias, Greece has been hit with around 118 fires in the last 24 hours as a severe heatwave hits the country, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

– ‘Environmental disaster’ –

“My house was spared the worst, God spared us, but neighbouring houses were burnt,” Giorgos Mitropoulos told AFP.

The student described the blaze as an “environmental disaster” at the foot of Mount Parnitha, part of the European Union’s Natura 2000 network of nature conservation sites.

The mountain range had already been ravaged by flames in 2007.

“Luckily, lots of volunteers saved the animals, the horses, the dogs and cats,” said Mitropoulos.

Some 200 horses in riding centres in the area were moved to safety, the Greek horse-riding confederation said.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the fire was rendered “difficult” due to “extreme heat conditions.”

But Christos Sfetsas blamed forestry authorities and a “lack of preventive measures, like the establishment of roads protecting forests against fires” that would allow specialist vehicles to better access the forests.

Authorities in Athens have recommended residents stay indoors and wear a mask to protect against the ash and lingering smoke.

The European Union’s crisis management commissioner said it would help, and Cyprus and Sweden were both sending two water-bombing planes to help battle the fires.

At least 150 houses were destroyed by a raging fire that surrounded a monastery and a dozen villages on the Greek island of Evia on Wednesday, just one of over 100 blazes burning in the heatwave-hit country.

Firefighters were also battling a blaze near Athens, while flames threatened Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games where the mayor pleaded for back-up.

“We’re waging a battle of the titans!” deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias told a press conference. “The hardest is still to come.”

On Evia, huge flames leapt up from the forest, visible from the sea in what firefighters said was a difficult blaze to control on an island of rolling hills with little visibility.

Three monks from Saint David Monastery had refused to leave, firefighters said, adding that everyone else had been evacuated from the villages nearby.

“We’re suffocating due to the smoke,” one of the monks told the ANA news agency by phone, adding flames some 30 to 40 metres (100 to 130 feet) high were surrounding the monastery.

Police told AFP they would force the monks to evacuate if their lives were in danger.

Around 85 people gathered on a beach and were evacuated on five boats.

Some 100 firefighters backed by seven helicopters and water-bombing planes were mobilised to fight the fire, civil protection officers said.

The authorities said three firefighters had been slightly hurt.

But Dimitris Vourdanos, deputy governor of the region, said that “we are completely unable to intervene by air or by land”.

“There are two main fronts which are uncontrollable and several other smaller ones,” he told the Kathimerini newspaper.

Argyris Liaskos, deputy mayor of the small town of Mantoudi, said at least 150 houses burned amid a lack of resources to fight the inferno.

“No aerial means have been deployed to put out the fire,” Liaskos told Ska TV.

– Acrid smoke over Athens –

According to Hardalias, Greece has faced a total of 118 fires in the last 24 hours as temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Evia island is some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away from Athens, where more than 500 firefighters, a dozen water-bombing planes and five helicopters battled another wildfire on the outskirts of the city.

The blaze started on Tuesday in a pine forest at the foot of Mount Parnitha, one of three ranges that surround the Greek capital, sending plumes of dark, acrid smoke over Athens and leaving carcasses of burnt-out houses in its wake.

Around a dozen houses have been destroyed in the flames, and dozens of businesses, bars and holiday accommodation have been severely damaged in the suburb of Varybombi, 30 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of Athens, officials said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the blaze was coming under control, Hardalias said.

Authorities in Athens have recommended residents stay indoors and wear a mask to protect against the ash and smoke.

– ‘Climate threat’ –

Over in Olympia, around 100 firefighters were battling the blaze, aided by three helicopters and two planes.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni is due to go there to evaluate the risks to the ancient site.

But Olympia mayor Giorgos Georgopoulos called for back-up on television. “We need more aerial support,” he said.

The European Union’s crisis management commissioner said it would help, and Cyprus and Sweden were both sending two water-bombing planes to help battle the fires.

Neighbouring Turkey is also suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, claiming the lives of eight people and forcing hundreds to evacuate in southern areas popular with tourists.

Experts have warned that global warming is increasing both the frequency and intensity of such fires. 

Hardalias said earlier in the week that “we are no longer talking about climate change but about a climate threat”.

At least 150 houses were destroyed by a violent blaze that surrounded a monastery and a dozen villages on the Greek island of Evia on Wednesday, just one of some 40 fires raging in the heatwave-hit country.

Firefighters were also battling a blaze near Athens, while flames threatened Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games where the mayor pleaded for back-up.

On Evia, huge flames leapt up from the forest, visible from afar in what firefighters said was a difficult blaze to control on an island of rolling hills with little visibility.

Three monks from Saint David Monastery had refused to leave, firefighters said, adding that everyone else had been evacuated from the villages nearby.

“The flames are 30 to 40 metres (100 to 130 feet) high and surrounding the monastery. We’re suffocating due to the smoke,” one of the monks told the ANA news agency by phone.

Police told AFP they would force the monks to evacuate if their life was in danger.

Locals had gathered on a beach and were due to be evacuated by boat, while 100 firefighters, two helicopters and four water-bombing planes were mobilised.

But Dimitris Vourdanos, deputy governor of the region, said that “we are completely unable to intervene by air or by land”.

“There are two main fronts which are uncontrollable and several other smaller ones,” he told the Kathimerini newspaper.

The deputy mayor of the small town of Mantoudi said there were “at least 150 houses burnt”.

– Acrid smoke over Athens –

According to deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias, around 40 blazes are raging in Greece as a severe heatwave hits the country, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Evia island is some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away from Athens, where more than 500 firefighters, a dozen water-bombing planes and five helicopters battled another wildfire on the outskirts of the city.

The blaze started on Tuesday in a pine forest at the foot of Mount Parnitha, one of three ranges that surround the Greek capital, sending plumes of dark, acrid smoke over Athens and leaving carcasses of burnt-out houses in its wake.

Around a dozen houses have been destroyed in the flames, and dozens of businesses, bars and holiday accommodation have been severely damaged in the suburb of Varympompi, 30 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of Athens, officials said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the blaze was coming under control, Hardalias said.

Authorities in Athens have recommended residents stay indoors and wear a mask to protect against the ash and smoke.

– ‘Climate threat’ –

Over in Olympia, around 100 firefighters were battling the blaze, aided by three helicopters and two planes.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni is due to go there to evaluate the risks to the ancient site.

But Olympia mayor Giorgos Georgopoulos called for back-up on television. “We need more aerial support,” he said.

The European Union’s crisis management commissioner said it would help, and Cyprus and Sweden were both sending two water-bombing planes to help battle the fires.

Neighbouring Turkey is also suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, claiming the lives of eight people and forcing hundreds to evacuate in southern areas popular with tourists.

Experts have warned that global warming is increasing both the frequency and intensity of such fires. 

Hardalias said earlier in the week that “we are no longer talking about climate change but about a climate threat”.