As Evia is at the mercy of the fire which is moving menacingly towards more and more areas, the smoke that has built up and covered the Attica sky is indicative of the size of the fire.

Just before sunset, the colours “blended” with the grey of the smoke, creating an eerie sight. The smoke partially obscured the sun at sunset. In Lycabettus, the colour of the sun took on another dimension which, if anything, puzzled many people.

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The image of the fire front

The fire that has been burning out of control since noon in central Euboea is raging out of control.

According to reports, the new front is moving towards the village of Kamari, just as firefighters were setting up zones to deal with the nuclei of flames moving menacingly towards the village of Afrati.

Wind gusts are reaching 7 Beaufort, while very low humidity levels are constantly creating spots and new outbreaks south of the fire.

Remember that the fire started in Pisson and moved very quickly towards Afrati, burning pine forest and farmland in its path.

The last message from 112 was sent at 17:22 and called on the residents of Kamari, Kalyvia and Agios Georgios Armas to move away towards Chalkida.

Shortly before 4.30pm a message was sent from 112 for evacuation of the Afrati settlement: “Forest fire in your area. If you are in the area of Afrati Evia, please move away towards Vasilikos” the message said.

Earlier a message was sent from 112 to those in the Pison area to be on alert: “Forest fire in the Pissona area of Evia. Stay at ετοιμότητα‼️ Follow the instructions of the authorities,” he said.

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Very strong ground and air forces have been operating since the first outbreak of the fire. Currently 145 firefighters with 7 forestry teams and 43 vehicles and a large number of Volunteers are battling the flames. 19 air assets, 11 aircraft and 6 helicopters have been deployed for aerial firefighting and 2 more helicopters for coordination.

The local government and the Armed Forces are assisting with project machinery and water trucks. Greek Police forces have been deployed in the area to facilitate the movement of residents. All civil protection forces are coordinated by the Mobile Operational Center OLYMPOS.

It is noted that 45 new fires have occurred in the last 24 hours and 37 of them were dealt with in the first year.

Meteo: Winds dropping in the next few hours – New strengthening Thursday morning

As per the analysis of the latest available forecast data from meteo.gr / National Observatory of Athens, winds in the coming hours in the area of Pissona, Evia, where a forest fire occurred in the afternoon hours of Wednesday, July 31, 2024, are expected to gradually weaken.

In particular, from 4-5 Beaufort winds in the afternoon hours with gusts of 50-55 km/h, to 2-3 Beaufort in the night hours of Wednesday and the early morning hours of Thursday. Gradual strengthening of winds is expected again from the early hours of Thursday morning.

The map below shows the wind gusts during the evening hours of Wednesday 31/07 and the early morning hours of Thursday 01/08 where they are not expected to exceed 30 km/h (Figure 1), while gradually from the morning hours to the midday hours of Thursday 01/08 the wind gusts are expected to exceed 40-50 km/h.