Greece wildfires: Plane crashes fighting fires - BBC News

well the fire service in Greece says one of its planes has crashed on the island of Evia at least two people are reported to have been on board the plane was among at least three aircraft and around 10 firefighters battling with the flames on the island the Greek Prime Minister has warned of tough days ahead these just the pictures of the moments before the plane actually came down well let me take you from that to these pictures from Rhodes it gives you just a sense of the intensity of what they're dealing with more emergency flights to repatriate tourists are expected to land The largest Greek island Crete has also been put on high alert the Prime Minister said his country and others in the Mediterranean were in The Hot Spot of climate change and warned it was a crisis that the entire world would have to face were these other scenes in Italy where the main airport on the island of Sicily was briefly closed as flames and smoke began to approach the runway an International Panel of scientists has said the current conditions could not possibly have happened without human-caused climate change let's hear more first of all on the program for increases prime minister the next few days especially today tomorrow and Thursday will be difficult days after that I hope the conditions will help us more and that's why we all obviously remain on high alert let me State the obvious that in the face of what the entire planet is facing especially the Mediterranean which is a hot spot for climate change there is no magic defense if there was obviously we would have implemented it well let's head straight live to Rhodes and live to our reporter azade mishiri who's been there throughout the course of the week and as a day first of all tell us a little more about any details you know about this plane going down so I spoke to the fire service and they have confirmed that a Greek plane did crash on the island of Evia near platanistos where there were evacuations earlier today because a fire was spreading he said this plane was not a Hellenic fire called plane it was not officially part of the Greek fire service it was an Air Force plane with two Air Force pilots on board and he said that these two pilots have been trained to fight fires of course this just emphasizes what the fire service has always said all along as well that as they respond to blazes as they respond to fires that these people anyone responding to all of this is risking their life and as a day we were hearing from the Greek Prime Minister talking about what they're actually battling with is there any more help that's coming to to help them from other parts of Europe yes uh turkey has sent uh two to some planes and one more helicopter to help on the island of roads where I am where you can see there's smoke and fire that's still uh growing behind me I am in uh an area in the town of Gennady and between Gennady and vati is where all the firefighters are focusing their efforts and that's because the winds have fanned these Flames me and my team were actually right there as the Flames started approaching us and and when we were told to evacuate that whole area now has been told to evacuate and this area here you're seeing where some cars are leaving there was a very strong police Cordon before and now they're they're trying to allow locals to go and uh and go and address their homes the safety of their crops we passed by some locals who were trying to water their land because of course when this happens to an area you live in it's particularly devastating but I really want to emphasize that this is happening on the southern part of Rhodes we're in the area right now that is the most affected by the the fire on the island and officials are reminding people that this isn't happening across all of Greece this is happening in certain localized areas so of course that's why some flights are still coming in as a day thanks very much and asada is talking there we're seeing those live pictures coming from a different park there from roads you can see right next to me and you can see just the intensity of the flames and we've seen that over a number of days in the Greek Prime Minister just outlining that he thought worse was to come in the next couple of days well let's talk now to Antonio who's a student who lives on the Eastern side of Rhodes so welcome to BBC News I wonder if you can just describe what you've been going through in the last day or so yeah it's been a terrible situation for everyone here on the island uh just I've been trying to volunteer and help with those supplies to Firefighters all the five-party volunteers I've gone to the feet we made our school here on my Village of Hancock made it as a sales for all the local people to bring supplies medical equipment face masks shovels gloves for the fires so in order to take them into the page and try to help the firefighters and the volunteers which are trying to save the forest houses and the area has been affected we're seeing the pictures and we've seen them for a number of days just the intensity of the fires and they are moving so rapidly how frightening is it it's so frightening because at the beginning of the fire we didn't have any any support from the look of May or the original mayor there was only the local people were trying to have the firefighters trying to supply the firefighters with food water electrolytes and all the equipment that they were needed to in order to ensure that the file could it spread but the first three days were completely alone whether we were like around 1.4 with no ways at all we were alone and the fire got spread really quick on the next days out where we had strong winds and has it got any better in terms of the support the help you're getting from government uh the government has sent the firefighters but in terms of the supply to them with equipment it nothing has changed from my perspective uh like on the school here that we made to a set for the evacuated people to come and stay for the night uh we didn't have any information on what we needed to do actually the school teachers are on holiday right now they opened by themselves the school and tried to coordinate everyone all the local businesses that they want to help and they don't know how we didn't have any official information what to do with the people that have been evacuated we're trying to figure out everything and the situation is currently is still is still the same we're just waiting for an official notice of something but we are we believe when we feel that we are alone in this and briefly when your prime minister says it is likely to get worse in the next couple of days how worrying is that it's really worrying because we've been the Island's been on fire for eight days now and it's been like quite a lot of forest and there's another Forest next to where the fire is currently is and if it's pressed through that Forest the whole island the whole Forest of the island is going to be burnt out it's completely terrifying for what the impact is going to have in the local economy the local communities the wildlife because here in Brooklyn have uh idea that's only producing a road in roads the dhamma damadilla and they've been running to the Villages trying to find food and what Supply it's really devastating our town is well good luck in the coming days thanks very much for taking time to speak to us here on BBC News

Channel: BBC News

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Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news, world news, breaking news, us news, world

Id: f-9uNz4X5SE

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 25 2023