A Hellenic Air Force water-dropping plane on Tuesday crashed while diving into a wildfire in southern Greece, killing both pilots, as authorities battled blazes that have been raging for days across the country amid a return of heat wave temperatures.
Summer wildfires blamed on climate change have also struck other Mediterranean countries, leaving at least 34 people dead in Algeria in recent days and two people dead in southern Italy on Tuesday.
A state ERT TV video showed the bright yellow CL-215 aircraft releasing its load of water on the island of Evia before its wingtip apparently snagged in a tree branch. Moments later it disappeared into a deep fold in the ground from which a fireball erupted.
Photo: AFP
The air force said the pilots, aged 34 and 27, both died in the crash.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis canceled a planned visit to Cyprus yesterday, and Greece’s armed forces declared three days of mourning.
“They offered their lives to save lives,” Mitsotakis said of the pilots. “They proved how hazardous their daily missions in extinguishing fires are... In their memory, we continue the war against the destructive forces of nature.”
A third successive heat wave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 40°C on Tuesday amid a string of evacuations from fires that have raged for days, whipped on by strong winds.
It is still unclear how they started, although tinder-dry conditions and the summer heat mean the slightest spark can ignite a blaze that would spread fast if not quickly extinguished. Several people have been arrested or fined across Greece in the past few days for accidentally starting fires.
EU officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires across the European continent, stating that last year was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.
Greek police said that a burned body believed to belong to a sheep farmer who had been missing since Sunday in southern Evia — a day before the fire broke out there — was found on Tuesday. It was unclear whether he had been killed by the fire or had died of other causes beforehand.
The EU has sent 500 firefighters, 100 vehicles and seven planes from 10 member states, while Turkey, Israel, Egypt and other countries have also sent help.
Contributing nations included Italy, which has its own fires and extreme weather.
On the island of Sicily, two people were found dead on Tuesday in a home burned by a wildfire that temporarily shut down Falcone Borsellino Airport in Palermo, Italian news reports said.
Regional officials said that 55 fires were active on Sicily, amid temperatures of about 40°C. In Puglia, further north, about 2,000 tourists were evacuated from three hotels in Vieste as flames got perilously close.
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