Greece fires: British firefighters deployed as ‘very big battle’ continues for fifth day

Teams from Merseyside, Lancashire, south Wales, London and the west Midlands fire services flying to Athens

British firefighters are to be deployed to Greece to join the ongoing battle against the devastating wildfires ripping through the country for the fifth day.

Teams from Merseyside, Lancashire, south Wales, London and the west Midlands fire services are due to fly to Athens this weekend at the request of Priti Patel.

The home secretary said she had asked the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) to send out a specialist team to help respond to the blazes, which have killed at least two people, including a firefighter.

Ms Patel, who was in Greece on Tuesday and Wednesday, 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.”

Follow Greece fires live: Latest death toll as hundreds rescued by boat

The NFCC said the team it would send to Greece would be entirely self-sufficient to ensure no additional burden is placed upon the country.

Mark Hardingham, the chair of the NFCC, said: “The UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) 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.”

France also said it would deploy three aircraft and 80 firefighters to join the hundreds already battling the infernos that have resulted in the evacuation of thousands of tourists and residents.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said his country stands by Greece. “Solidarity, as Europeans, always,” he wrote on Twitter.

The fires sweeping through Greek forests, triggering more evacuations a day after hundreds of people were plucked off beaches by ferries in an overnight rescue, were described as “a biblical catastrophe” by one official.

One large fire that advanced up the slopes of Mount Parnitha on the outskirts of Athens has forced the evacuation of thousands of people since late Thursday, with emergency crews facing winds and high temperatures as they battled to contain it.

The flames appeared to have died down by Saturday afternoon, but winds were forecast to strengthen, meaning there was still a high threat they would flare again.

In apocalyptic scenes that went into Friday night, small ferries and other boats evacuated 1,400 people from a seaside village and beaches on Evia, an island of rugged, forested mountains popular with tourists and campers, after approaching flames cut off other escape routes.

The scale of Greece’s wildfires has been breathtaking, with more than 100 breaking out across the country over the past few days. Most were quickly tamed, but several rapidly burned out of control, consuming homes and causing untold ecological damage.

A Chinook douses a wildfire in the Malakassa area (EPA)

A local official in the Mani region of the Peloponnese estimated the wildfire there had destroyed around 70 per cent of the area.

“It’s a biblical catastrophe. We’re talking about three-quarters of the municipality,” Eleni Drakoulakou, the deputy mayor of East Mani, told state broadcaster ERT, pleading for more water-dropping aircraft.

Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described it as a “nightmarish summer”, adding the government’s priority “has been, first and foremost, to protect human lives”.

Greek and European officials blamed the climate crisis for the extreme weather and fires burning through southern Europe.

The fires in Greece are largely due to the country’s most severe heatwave in 30 years, with temperatures soaring to more than 40C in some areas.

“We are witnessing a catastrophe of historic proportions and climate change is the basic cause,” Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Greece’s main political opposition, said on Friday.

“We must support our frontline fighters and all who lost the efforts of a lifetime in a few minutes.”