Greek wildfires: New blaze breaks out on Evia island

A new fire has broken out on Greece’s island of Evia but south from the area where a massive wildfire decimated forests, torched homes and still smoldered 10 days after it started

ATHENS, Greece -- A new fire broke out Friday on Greece’s island of Evia but south from the area where a massive wildfire decimated forests, torched homes and still smoldered 10 days after it started. Greece’s fire department said four water-dropping aircraft and six helicopters were sent to control the new fire in central Evia, along with 23 firefighters and 10 vehicles. The larger fire that broke out on Aug. 3 destroyed most of the island’s north and is one of the country's worst known forest fires. Although wildfires are common in Greece during the hot, dry summers, hundreds of blazes have broken out across the country this year in the wake of an especially long and intense heat wave. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday described the fires as the greatest ecological disaster Greece has seen in decades. Several Mediterranean countries have suffered intense heat and quickly spreading wildfires in recent weeks, including Turkey, where at least eight people have died, and Italy. In Algeria, wildfires in the mountainous Berber region have killed at least 69 people.