Wildfires that have scorched Greece for more than two weeks are under control, but firefighters remain in key hotspots with strong winds still a threat, officials said.
“Scattered fire pockets are being extinguished,” the fire department said, adding that there was “no active front” in the three biggest wildfires in Rhodes, Corfu and central Greece that had forced thousands of people to flee.
Nevertheless, more than 460 firefighters were still deployed in these three areas as a precaution, it said.
“There is no de-escalation of forces until the major incidents are checked,” the fire department said.
Fed by scorching temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds, the two-week inferno had caused chaos at the peak of the busy summer tourist season in Greece.
Nearly 20,000 people – primarily tourists – were forced to flee hotels on Rhodes, the island worst affected by the fires, in a single day. The operation was described as the biggest evacuation ever carried out in Greece. A state of emergency was declared in some areas of the popular tourist destination earlier this week.
The fires killed at least five people and scorched nearly 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) of forest and vegetation, according to estimates by the Athens Observatory.
Two pilots died on Tuesday when their waterbombing plane crashed while battling a blaze in Evia, while three more scorched bodies were recovered in fires in Evia and near the industrial zone of the port city of Volos in central Greece.
The blazes have also put political pressure on the conservative government of prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which was re-elected just a month ago.
The citizen’s protection minister resigned his post on Friday after it emerged that he had taken a holiday as the country battled the wildfires.
On Friday the country’s senior climate crisis official said most of the 667 fires that have erupted across Greece were started “by human hand”.
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Vassilis Kikilias, the Greek minister of climate crisis and civil protection, told reporters: “During this time 667 fires erupted, that is more than 60 fires a day, almost all over the country. Unfortunately, the majority were ignited by human hand, either by criminal negligence or intent.”
For more than 10 days this month, Greece sweltered under what some experts say is the longest heatwave recorded in July for decades.
Temperatures, which reached 46C this week, have begun to fall.
National weather forecaster EMY predicted the mercury would not climb above 37C on Saturday, but said wind gusts could reach 37 mph.
Fires have also flared in Croatia, Italy and Portugal this week, and blazes killed 34 in Algeria in extreme heat that has left landscapes tinder-dry.
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