The fire in Barnabas, on the forest fire that started from Kalamos on Sunday afternoon, was rampant, and it quickly became too large for many to complain that there was mismanagement of the situation.
Shortly after 10:45, there was a great resurgence in the mountain with firefighters using bulldozers in order to open up roads to get close to the flames and try to limit the front.
The 150 firefighters with 68 vehicles, the 58 hikers, the 19 volunteers and many more specialized vehicles are assisting with two airplanes and five helicopters by air, however, so far, water spills have restricted their fire front.
The most vivid but also worrying description was given early in the morning by the Mayor Barnabas Charalambia Asimakopoulou, who told SKAI Channel that “everything is burning” while calling for assistance as the village pumping station has been damaged and there is a problem with the re-supply of firefighting vehicles with water.
As she explained the main front of the fire is the one that is heading towards the beach while residents of the area express their concern about the possibility the fire would reach to Grammatiko area, where for preventive purposes children camps have been evacuated.
According to Deputy Mayor of Oropos, “it’s a miracle that we did not have any losses of human lives” by the great fire that has been burning since Sunday.
“The fire in Kalamos started on Sunday at 16.10, the fire brigade in the area was patrolling, but it was the first time that there was such a long delay in seeing any help from the air, Also a power cut in the area prevented the pumping stations from working when we needed them”, said Mr. Dedes.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “many houses were burned, there were damages at pumping stations and cables were burned. There are Public Power Company (ΔΕΗ) works going on right now to repair the damages”.
“There were a lot of fires that we managed to put out, but unfortunately we did not manage to prevent the Sunday fire and we did not mourn human lives by miracle,” he added.
As stated by the Athenian News Agency, Marathon deputy mayor and head of civil protection, Adam Megapanos, the fire has a 25-kilometer front, is still out of control and rages in an inaccessible area with very dense forest. According to the deputy mayor, two military bases in the area are being evacuated by both their personnel and the ammunition stored.
