Fire devours Greek island’s forests; residents urged to flee

PEFKI, Greece — Pillars of billowing smoke and ash turned the sky orange and blocked out the sun above Greece’s second-largest island Sunday as a days-old wildfire devoured pristine forests and encroached on villages, triggering more evacuation alerts.

The fire on Evia, an island of forested mountains and canyons laced with small coves of crystalline water, began Aug. 3 and cut across the popular summer destination from coast to coast as it burned out of control. Scores of homes and businesses have been destroyed and thousands of residents and tourists have fled, many escaping the flames via flotillas that even operated in the dark of night. The blaze is the most severe of dozens that broke out in the wake of Greece’s most protracted heat wave in three decades, which sent temperatures soaring to 113 F for days, creating bone-dry conditions.

“It’s already too late, the area has been destroyed,” Giannis Kontzias, mayor of the northern Evia municipality of Istiaia, lamented on Greece’s Open TV.

Evacuation orders were issued Sunday for four villages in northern Evia, including Pefki, but many residents refused to leave, hoping to save their properties.

In dramatic scenes Sunday afternoon, fast-moving flames had encroached on the seaside village of Pefki, burning trees on the fringes and entering the houses’ yards.

Late Sunday, firefighters managed to stop the fire before it advanced further into Pefki, on the northern coast. Residents and tourists fled to the port of Aidipsos to take the ferry to the mainland port of Arkitsa.

Acrid, choking smoke hung in the orange-grey air, turning the day into an apocalyptic twilight as people headed towards Pefki’s pebble beach, dragging suitcases, clutching pets and helping elderly relatives.