Raging Athens wildfire is the 'worst' this year
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Transcript
00:00Hello from what is a very difficult day for the emergency workers working on site towards
00:06the area of Pendeli in Athens. It is indeed the worst fire we have seen so far in Greece
00:13this year with flames going up to 25 meters and really the fire entirely engulfing a region
00:22of 30 kilometers in less than 24 hours. Now speaking to the firefighters themselves and
00:28a pilot they were saying how difficult the situation is because of these weather conditions.
00:35As you can see behind me these are the plumes of smoke from the fire that emerged yesterday
00:41and have engulfed Athens. You can smell it. Yes, I could feel ashes being thrown into
00:46my eyes. It's a very difficult situation here and this wind is what is making the situation
00:54so difficult. Now the good news we're hearing is that it will weaken towards the end of
01:01the day which will also make the situation better because in the evening the 32 water
01:07bombing aircrafts will have to land as they usually do in the evening. They're not allowed
01:14to fly and help the firefighters thus making the job of the firefighters on the ground
01:21easier. Now we currently have 685 firefighters on the ground including 190 fire trucks and
01:2932 as I mentioned earlier aircrafts helping to support the work at hand. Now the ministry
01:36itself is constantly sending messages to the residents. I've received two in the last hour
01:42or so cautioning us to move away from the area of Pendeli, a wooded area which is densely
01:48however populated in Athens. And Nathalie, how long are these conditions expected to last?
01:58Well you know meteorologists are trying to you know be very cautious. Now they're saying until
02:05the 15th of August we will have the meltems which is the wind known in August especially
02:12in Greece. High gusts of wind are going like we're talking winds going as fast as 70 to 80
02:19kilometers per hour. So you can imagine the situation eight on the Beaufort scale. That is
02:25what is making it very difficult and they're saying the 15th of August is when the situation
02:32with the weather conditions should peak. Of course temperature is expected to reach 40 degrees
02:37Celsius which is very difficult. And just to wrap up this according to a meteorologist has been
02:46the hottest year in there since they were ever recording temperatures in Greece only followed
02:54by 2023. So you can imagine the superhuman effort that the emergency workers are doing with the
03:02Prime Minister Mitotakis' help cutting his holiday short to come to Athens
03:08to oversee the work that's being done here.