Civil protection: 594 wildfires in Greece over past 10 days; five major fronts

Civil protection authorities in Greece on Wednesday said the number of wildfires – regardless of size and duration – reported in the country over the past 10 days has reached 594, with 571 extinguished before spreading.

The five major wildfires, prior to Wednesday, devastated a portion of industrialized west Attica prefecture (west of the Athens-Piraeus agglomeration), the islands of Corfu, Rhodes, a hilly area near the Loutraki resort region, a stretch of southeast Attica prefecture, the low mountains above the Corinth Gulf city of Egio, a rugged area east of the Evia island harbor town of Karystos and sites in Laconia and Viotia prefectures, in southern and south-central Greece.

The worst blaze was on the Dodecanese holiday island of Rhodes, which on Wednesday burned for an eighth straight day, despite massive fire-fighting efforts to combat the flames.

New and worrying wildfires erupted on Wednesday near the south-central city of Lamia, adjacent to the Volos industrial district, also in central coastal Greece, and near the town of Kato Tithorea, south of Lamia.

Five fatalities so far are directly linked with the wildfires, including two air force pilots whose CL-215 water-dropping plane crashed on Tuesday east of Karystos. Another two victims were shepherds who died while trying to reach their herds in remote highland regions.