The fire fronts around the villages of Kapandriti and Agia Irini in Kefalonia, with the fire brigade fighting to keep the flames away from the houses of the villages.
The Greek island of Kefalonia has to deal with extensive forests and wildfires on Saturday. The fire broke out after a 10-day heatwave and prolonged drought. Several villages had to be evacuated.
Kefalonia is one of the Ionian Islands to the west of the Greek mainland. The fire brigade is deploying firefighting planes and helicopters to contain the flames. The fire brigade also announced via Twitter that reinforcements have arrived from the mainland.
Greece has been under the spell of a heatwave for days, with local temperatures of more than 40 degrees. In addition, strong winds will blow in the west of the country on Saturday. The fire risk is also high in the coming days, according to the emergency services.
Today a large fire is still in progress in a forest area on the island of Kefalonia.
106 firefighters are operating in the area along with six ground teams, and 27 vehicles.
Due to the fire on the island, the organized evacuation of the entire population located in the area of Kapandriti was decided on Saturday for precautionary reasons. According to the mayor of Argostoli, Theofilos Michalatos, the evacuation of the population is done "for reasons of protection of the people who are in the area."
Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), the mayor of Argostoli described the fire in Kapandriti as "dangerous due to the strong winds blowing in the area and the high temperatures", while for the evacuation of the village he stated that "it was done following a suggestion of the Fire Brigade Commander.
On Sunday, three more settlements - Markopoulos, Kremydi, Pastra - were also evacuated.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQ5DZujB8FB/
