The accident occurred as Greece battled wildfires on three major fronts, including the tourist islands of Rhodes and Corfu, with many of the country’s regions listed at extreme risk of dangerous forest fires exacerbated by strong winds. The plane was among at least three other aircraft and around a hundred firefighters in the fight against the flames on Evia. “A Greek Canadair plane, with at least two people on board, crashed near Platanisto,” a village in Evia, spokesman Yannis Artopios said. Footage on state TV ERT showed the plane clipping a tree before falling nose-first and exploding. The fire department said the Canadair aircraft crashed into a ravine close to where the fire started on Sunday. In Athens, authorities resumed afternoon closing hours at the ancient Acropolis, as part of broader measures to cope with the high heat.RHODES: A Greek water-bombing plane crashed Tuesday while battling a forest fire on the island of Evia as hundreds of firefighters struggled to beat back blazes still raging in Rhodes and Corfu amid a new wave of soaring temperatures. All residents had been evacuated and no one was hurt. Another wildfire that broke out in the western province of Manisa, was brought under control a day after it reached a small village, burning at least 14 homes. In Turkey, authorities evacuated a dozen homes and a hospital as a precaution on Tuesday after a wildfire raged through a rugged forest area near the Mediterranean resort of Kemer, in Antalya province. But in Italy's northern Lombardy region, a powerful storm caused flooding, power outages and was blamed for the death of a 16-year-old girl at a scouts' camp. On the island of Sicily, Palermo's international airport temporarily shut down as flames from a wildfire approached. Contributing nations included Italy which was dealing with its own fires and extreme weather at home. The European Union has sent 500 firefighters, 100 vehicles and seven planes from 10 member states, while Turkey, Israel, Egypt and other countries have also sent help. Tour operators said holidaymakers would be heading to resorts in the so-far unaffected northern part of Rhodes. ![]() Two full charter flights were scheduled to depart from Sweden on Wednesday, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said. we eventually made it to safety.” Rhodes is highly popular with Nordic tourists, who are expected to continue heading for the island this week. “We were choking on the smoke and ran as far as we could. “The fire got got very close and we had to run,” Sumakovic wrote, captioning videos of the fire. In a series of online posts, Sumakovic described frantic scenes as she and Petrusev escaped the fire. Among them was Serbian basketball star Philip Petrusev, a played for the Philadelphia 76ers who was vacationing on Rhodes with his partner Tiana Sumakovic. Authorities said that more than 20,000 people have been involved in successive evacuations on the island, mostly tourists over the weekend when fires swept through two coastal areas in the southeast of Rhodes. The Greek Fire Service has battled more than 500 fires - more than 50 a day,” said Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection. ![]() “For the twelfth day, under extreme conditions of heat and strong winds, we are fighting nonstop on dozens of forest fire fronts. On Rhodes, desperate residents, many with wet towels around their necks to stave off the scorching heat, used shovels to beat back flames approaching their homes, while firefighting planes and helicopters resumed water drops at first light. Another five evacuations were ordered on Corfu, and one overnight on Evia. Four villages on Rhodes were ordered evacuated on Tuesday as a fire burning for eight days continued to move inland, torching mountainous forest areas, including a part of a nature reserve. “On the other fronts we have to deal with many cases of the fire flaring up again,” Ioannis Artopios said. A Greek fire service spokesman said the worst blazes on Tuesday were on the southeastern island of Rhodes and the northwestern island of Corfu - both which are popular tourist destinations. EU officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires across the European continent, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017. Summer wildfires have also struck other Mediterranean countries, leaving at least 34 people dead in Algeria.
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