PM thanks women and men of the fire brigade after Varybobi fire

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday chaired an emergency meeting on the ongoing fire in Varybobi, held in the mobile coordination centre Olympos near the site of the fire.

"A big thank you to the women and men of the fire brigade. They did very important work throughout the night, especially by the ground teams. We were up against an extremely difficult fire in conditions of extreme hot weather. The most nightmarish fires are those that occur in forests around urban areas. I hold on to the fact that, thank God, we have not until now had any losses of human life as positive and that the evacuation system worked in an exemplary fashion. Our critical infrastructure has held up," Mitsotakis said

The prime minister said that the work to record the damage will begin immediately:

"The houses will be rebuilt, the forest will recover in time...but there are still difficult times ahead. We have some days yet of the heatwave and then the winds will begin, in which case I ask everyone to remain on absolute alert so that the damage done from now on is as little as possible."

He also thanked the fire brigade, police and volunteers for their selfless efforts against an extremely difficult situation.