And at the moment, the entire state system continues to make efforts to deal with the consequences of yesterday’s catastrophic fires, but also to extinguish the existing forest fire. The situation is still critical.
The quick fire spreading, with 14 simultaneous fires, on three fronts in eastern Attica, as well as wind speeds reaching up to 9 beauforts, has caused extremely difficult conditions for the intervention of firefighters, both airborne and terrestrial. However, besides firefighting, the implementation of a parallel emergency plan with the mobilization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the police, as well as the Ministries of Health, Transport, Defense, Maritime Affairs and the Environment, as well as the areas of Attica, is currently underway. From yesterday until this moment, all available units of the Ministry of Health in the area of Attica were hired. At present, unfortunately, the number of dead reaches up to 50 people. The fire department, in cooperation with the police, continues to carry out a difficult task of enumeration and the update will continue to run constantly. In the interventions, special forces of the Land Forces, as well as a navy with a single frigate, two desant ships, three helicopters and three warships, came to the aid. The prime minister had a telephone conversation with the President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker. During their conversation, Mr. Junker expressed the solidarity of the European Commission with Greece and stressed the readiness to provide the necessary resources to deal with the emergency situation caused by fires, while the prime minister informed the European Commission President of the development of interventions. In the end, the Prime Minister spoke with the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Anastasiadis and the President of Bulgaria, Mr. Borisov, while later a conversation with the President of Turkey is expected, Mr. Erdogan and the President of France, Macron.