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world news Dialuna 9 augustus 2021

Fire devours Greek island's forests; residents urged to flee

(AP) — Pillars of billowing es’ yards. At least one house was on “We have before us one more dif- Peloponnese region, while another
smoke and ash turned the sky fire. Panicked residents raced with ficult afternoon, one more difficult broke out Sunday afternoon on the
orange and blocked out the sun water tanks, hoses and branches in a night,” Hardalias said. “All the forces southern island of Crete.
above Greece’s second-largest seemingly futile effort to extinguish that have been fighting a difficult bat-
island Sunday as a days-old wild- the flames. tle all these days will continue operat- Another massive fire that ravaged
fire devoured pristine forests and ing with unabated intensity, with the forests, homes and businesses on the
encroached on villages, trigger- Acrid, choking smoke hung in the same self-sacrifice.” northern fringes of the Greek capi-
ing more evacuation alerts. orange-grey air, turning the day into tal appeared to be on the wane. That
an apocalyptic twilight as people But many have decried government blaze burnt through large tracts of a
The fire on Evia, an island of forested headed towards Pefki’s pebble beach, efforts, citing what they saw as a lack national park on Mount Parnitha, the
mountains and canyons laced with dragging suitcases, clutching pets and of firefighting forces or planes or de- largest forested area remaining near
small coves of crystalline water, be- helping elderly relatives. lays in their arrival. Athens.
gan Aug. 3 and cut across the popu-
lar summer destination from coast Around 350 people had boarded the “The atmosphere was suffocating, Firefighters were worried that the
to coast as it burned out of control. ferry even before the flames reached although I was away from the fire. Mount Parnitha fire would rekindle,
Scores of homes and businesses have the village, the coast guard said, while There was ash and smoke every- so they and the military had been pa-
been destroyed and thousands of res- 23 others were rescued from other where,” said Christina Tsatou, who troling all night, Hardalias said. One
idents and tourists have fled, many beaches in northern Evia. A ferry, had been in the seaside village of Ag- firefighter was transferred to a hospi-
escaping the flames via flotillas that coast guard patrol boats, navy vessels ios Georgios. “It is very sad that they tal Sunday after passing out during a
even operated in the dark of night. and other boats were on standby to did not send help in the first days patrol.
evacuate residents. and they left the island burning. It
The blaze is the most severe of doz- was unfair and many people have lost On Friday, a volunteer firefighter
ens that broke out in the wake of Evacuation orders were issued Sun- their property, their livelihoods.” died after suffering head injuries
Greece’s most protracted heat wave day for four villages in northern Evia, from a falling electric pole north of
in three decades, which sent temper- including Pefki, but many residents The wildfires have stretched Greece’s Athens, while at least 20 people have
atures soaring to 45 degrees Celsius refused to leave, hoping to save their firefighting capabilities to the limit, been treated for fire-related injuries,
(113 F) for days, creating bone-dry properties. and the government has appealed including two firefighters hospital-
conditions. for help from abroad. More than 20 ized in intensive care.
In nearby Gouves, towering flames countries in Europe and the Mideast
“It’s already too late, the area has been leaped from the treetops, devouring have responded, sending planes, heli- The causes of the fires are under in-
destroyed,” Giannis Kontzias, mayor the pine forest leading to the village. copters, vehicles and manpower. vestigation. Three people were ar-
of the northern Evia municipality of Some residents remained in the pic- rested Friday on suspicion of starting
Istiaia, lamented on Greece’s Open turesque mountain village, dousing Overnight, the Greek coast guard blazes, in two cases intentionally. A
TV. He was one of several local offi- homes with water from garden hoses and ferries evacuated 83 people from 47-year-old Greek was arrested Sat-
cials and residents who took to Greek in a last-ditch effort to save them. beaches in northern Evia, following a urday in an Athens suburb for light-
TV networks to appeal for more fire- Others used bulldozers to raze trees seaside evacuation of more than 1,000 ing two fires in a grove and setting
fighting help, particularly from wa- and bushes, hoping to create rudi- people on Friday night as flames raged four dumpsters on fire. Police said
ter-dropping planes and helicopters. mentary firebreaks. across the hills behind them. Sunday that two more people had
been arrested on suspicion of at-
Residents of nearby villages had been Civil Protection chief Nikos Har- The fire department said Sunday 575 tempted arson: a 71-year-old Greek
urged to head to Istiaia, a town of dalias said the Evia fire was burning firefighters, 35 ground teams and 89 in southern Greece and a foreigner in
7,000 that firefighters battled to save on two fronts, one to the north and vehicles were battling the Evia wild- an Athens park.
overnight. one to the south. He said the condi- fire, including 112 Romanian and
tions there were particularly tough 100 Ukrainian firefighters. Four heli- Greek and European officials have
In dramatic scenes Sunday afternoon, for the water-dropping planes and copters and three planes provided air also blamed climate change for the
fast-moving flames encroached on helicopters, whose pilots faced “great support. large number of fires in southern Eu-
the seaside village of Pefki on the is- danger” with limited visibility and air rope this summer, from Italy to the
land’s northern coast, burning trees turbulence. Three more major fires were also Balkans, Greece and Turkey.
on the fringes and entering the hous- burning Sunday in Greece’s southern

2 charged in plot to harm or kill Myanmar ambassador to UN

(AP) — Two Myanmar poses the military junta Zaw plotted to seriously in- opposed the ouster of civilian ambassador lives, according
citizens were arrested on that seized power earlier jure or kill Myanmar’s am- leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In to two criminal complaints.
charges alleging that they this year, by injuring — or bassador in an attack that was a speech to the General As-
conspired to oust Myan- even killing — him. to take place on American sembly in late February, Tun Htut last month was contact-
mar’s ambassador to the soil, U.S. Attorney Audrey called for “the strongest pos- ed by the arms dealer, who
United Nations, who op- Phyo Hein Htut and Ye Hein Strauss said in a release Fri- sible action from the interna- wanted to pay several thou-
day. tional community” to restore sand dollars for Htut to carry
democracy. out the attack, the complaints
According to court docu- said. Htut received a $2,000
ments in White Plains fed- Myanmar’s military has tried advance on July 23, it added.
eral court, a Thailand arms to remove Tun from his post,
dealer who sells weapons to but the 193-member General After the FBI learned of the
the Myanmar military hired Assembly is responsible for plot on Tuesday, it arranged to
the pair to hurt the ambassa- accrediting diplomats and has interview Htut on Wednes-
dor to try to force him to step not taken action at the mili- day, when Htut described the
down. If that didn’t work, the tary’s urging. plan, which included initially
ambassador was to be killed, tampering with the ambas-
authorities said. There was no immediate re- sador’s tires to cause an ac-
sponse to a phone call and cident, the complaint said.
Myanmar’s military over- email to Myanmar’s U.N. It said Htut received $4,000
threw the country’s civil- Mission seeking comment. in payments to carry out the
ian government in February. attack and was to be paid an-
Myanmar’s currently rec- The plot to maim or kill Tun other $1,000 once it was fin-
ognized U.N. ambassador, was to be carried out in West- ished.
Kyaw Moe Tun, staunchly chester County, where the