Thousands more flee fires amid heat wave in Greece

ATHENS－Hundreds of people were evacuated by boat from an island near Athens as Greece braced for a fourth day of wildfires on Friday with emergency services forecasting strong winds and searing temperatures.

Coast Guard vessels assisted by tourist boats have picked up 631 people since late Thursday from three beaches on the island of Evia, where flames have burned through a vast area of pine forest since Tuesday and reached the sea.

A Coast Guard official said all of them had been moved to safety and sea patrols are continuing in case of emergency.

The skies of Athens were again clouded by thick smoke from wildfires on the northern outskirts of the city, which burst back to life on Thursday after dying down earlier this past week.

A number of suburbs have been evacuated as the fire burned around the main highway linking Athens to northern Greece. Hundreds of firefighters with water-bombing aircraft were trying to prevent the flames reaching the nearby town of Marathon.

"We are going through the 10th day of a major heat wave affecting our entire country, the worst heat wave in terms of intensity and duration of the last 30 years," said Fire Service Brigadier General Aristotelis Papadopoulos on Thursday.

Temperatures have been over 40 C all this past week, with no signs of the fire letting up as gale force winds are expected to spread the flames further.

At least nine people have been taken to hospital with varying degrees of injury so far, including two volunteer firefighters treated for burns in intensive care units in Athens, health officials said.

Fire crews, water-dropping planes, helicopters and vehicles from France, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland will arrive on Friday and through the weekend to help. Fire crews and planes from Cyprus were already in Greece, as the European Union stepped up support to fire-hit countries in southeast Europe. The heat wave has also fueled deadly fires in Turkey and across the region.

In neighboring Turkey, a wildfire that reached the compound of a coal-fueled power plant in the country's southwest had forced nearby residents to flee in boats and cars. The fire was contained on Thursday after raging for some 11 hours, officials and media reports said.

Strong winds drove the fire toward the Kemerkoy power plant in Mugla province late on Wednesday, prompting evacuations from the nearby seaside resort of Oren. Navy vessels were deployed to help ferry away residents, while cars formed long convoys on roads leading away from the area, Haberturk television reported.

Turkey's worst wildfires in decades have raged for nine days amid scorching heat, low humidity and constantly shifting strong winds. The fires have so far killed eight people and countless animals.

Agencies via Xinhua