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AP PHOTOS: A massive fire ravages land outside the Greek capital

Posted on by Vaseline
AP PHOTOS: A massive fire ravages land outside the Greek capital

In the charred remains of his workshop, sculptor Vangelis Ilias piles up what little remains of his years of effort.

In August, a raging forest fire raged in the mountains north of Athens, the capital of Greece. The fire reached the city and came within meters of the place where Ilias made tombstones, statues and other objects of white marble to order.

The flames ignited a gasoline-filled generator in his workshop, which burned for two days before he could reach the property. A bust of a Greek Orthodox saint was spared and now rests in front of the hollowed-out, soot-covered site in the Halandri suburb.

“It’s not the financial cost. I lost my job — something spiritual,” Ilias said. “I’ve been doing this for 35 years, since I was a kid, 14 years old.”

The August 11-13 wildfire destroyed more than 100 square kilometres of forest and scrub and scorched the banks of the city’s main water reservoir at Marathon, where a centuries-old battle inspired the modern long-distance race.

After the fire reached the urban fringes of Athens, it forced thousands of people to flee. It destroyed homes, businesses, green spaces and a sports stadium in the northern suburbs — leaving deep scars on the landscape around Greece’s capital, home to more than a quarter of the country’s 10.4 million people.

The Athens National Observatory said the fire brought the area of ​​burned land in the Attica region since 2017 to more than 700 square kilometers (270 square miles). That’s 26% of the region’s total area and 37% of its forests — underscoring the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in recent years.

“We knew that this year would be the most difficult firefighting period in history,” Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection, told private television channel Skai. “Since the start of the fire season on May 1, some 4,000 fires have broken out, a figure that is 50% higher than last year.”

Blackened hills, burned cars and aerial photos of the devastation serve as stark reminders of the intensity of the fire — it defied a massive response by firefighters, as well as planes and helicopters that dropped water. Several other countries also sent planes and firefighters to help Athens.

The government ordered rapid evacuations along the southern route, but also imposed fines on homeowners who ignored fire safety regulations.

“The fire started and then it was carried by strong winds — that part was a natural phenomenon,” Ilias said. “But many residents ignored orders to evacuate the grounds of their homes, so we can’t just blame politicians for the response. It’s also up to us.”

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Follow AP photography at: https://apnews.com/photography

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