Greek government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos urged here on Wednesday both state services and ordinary citizens to observe caution to prevent the outbreak of forest fires during the summer months.
He stressed every effort was being made to prevent a repetition of last year's destructive fires, when vast tracts of the country were engulfed in flames.
He said the first drop by a water-bombing aircraft came within 23 minutes of the outbreak of a fire in Oropos near Athens on Wednesday, which was now being battled by a large force of seven aircraft, three helicopters, 24 fire engines and a large team of fire fighters on foot.
According to the fire brigade, 102 fires had broken out in forests and 54 fires in urban areas during the last 24 hours due to high temperatures and strong winds, nearly all of which were now under control.
Roussopoulos stressed municipalities, communities and regional authorities had received fairly large sums of money to take measures to protect against fires and pointed out this was not a problem faced by Greece alone.
He also pointed out Greece has more fire-fighting equipment than any other European country relative to its population and size.
Among the more important fires reported over the past day are the ongoing fire in the coastal resort of Oropos in north Attica, where several homes were reported to be at risk.
One fire near the Aspropyrgos industrial district destroyed six warehouses and other facilities and one in the municipality of Arethousa in Thessaloniki burned 50 hectares of forest before it was put out on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, a fire that broke out in a paint warehouse in the Athens district of Votanikos on Wednesday morning injured two people who were taken to the General State Hospital before it was put out, while fires were reported in the Evzones region of Kilkisand at Aridaia on the border with Macedonia.
Fires also broke out on the islands of Andros and Kefallonia, in the Kavalari district in Megara and in the Athens suburb of Menidi.
Source:Xinhua
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