The UK has responded to Greece’s calls for help and deployed firefighter teams to help fight the worst wildfires the country has seen in decades.

Greece has been devastated by at least 154 wildfires in the past week, leaving one firefighter dead, more than 20 injured, and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

The ‘biblical catastrophe’ comes after days of a scorching heatwave with temperatures skyrocketing to 45°C.

The Greek government called for international help through the European Union’s emergency support system and several countries, including the UK, have responded by deploying teams.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who visited Greece last week, said: ‘I’ve seen first-hand this week the devastating wildfires ripping through Greece and the UK stands shoulder to shoulder with our Greek friends at this difficult time.

‘I’ve asked the National Fire Chiefs Council to send out a specialist team to provide support in responding to this emergency.

‘I am immensely grateful to the brave firefighters for stepping forward and volunteering to help and their expertise will be invaluable in supporting the Greek emergency services.’

Teams from Merseyside, Lancashire, South Wales, London and the West Midlands fire services will fly to Athens this weekend.

The teams, set up by the UK’s National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), will be deployed alongside Greece’s overstretched firefighters – one of whom tragically died while tackling the blazes.

NFCC chairman Mark Hardingham said: ‘The UK Fire and Rescue Service will be offering support to our colleagues in Greece, along with their communities who need assistance during these devastating wildfires.

‘NFCC’s national resilience function is in place to deploy both in the UK and overseas – and the team is highly skilled at responding to extreme events such as these.

‘We can offer professional and technical skills to our fire family in Greece at a time when help is needed; it is ingrained in the professional nature of FRS staff to assist.’

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video

On top of the UK’s teams, Greece has also received help from France, Ukraine, Cyprus, Croatia, Sweden, Israel, Romania and Switzerland.

Fires have enveloped different parts of the country with ferries being forced to evacuate 1,153 people from villages and beaches on Evia.

One major blaze has destroyed 70% of an area in burning in the southern Peloponnese region of Mani.

The deputy mayor of East Mani, Eleni Drakoulakou, said: ‘It’s a biblical catastrophe.

‘We’re talking about three-quarters of the municipality.’

There have been 154 wildfires in the past week alone and blazes were still raging throughout the night, said Greece’s Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias.

The heatwave has also scorched Turkey and various other countries in the region.

Greek and European officials have also blamed climate change for a large number of summer fires burning through southern Europe, from southern Italy to the Balkans, Greece and Turkey.

In Italy, firefighters battling a wildfire in Reggio Calabria province found the bodies of a man and a woman in an olive grove.

Italian news agency LaPresse said the two died of smoke inhalation.

Massive fires have also been burning across Siberia in Russia’s north for weeks, while hot, bone-dry, gusty weather has fuelled devastating wildfires in California.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article