Posted on 08/23/2023 3:20:49 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
Firefighters from across Europe have arrived in Greece to help tackle around 350 wildfires spreading across the country, as investigations begin into what authorities suspect may have been organized arson.
Crews from Germany, Sweden, Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Cyprus have come to the country's aid, offering water-dropping aircraft, water tanks and firefighters.
Hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes Tuesday and Wednesday, while the bodies of 18 migrants were discovered burned to death close to the border with Turkey.
The fires have come close to the capital, Athens, with over 200 firefighters battling a blaze around 12 miles north of the city. Athens itself has been covered in smoke and ash since the fire began Tuesday.
Where another fire burned out of control in Alexandroupolis, a Supreme Court prosecutor, Georgia Adilini, asked the city's prosecutor to begin investigating possible organized arson.
It comes after another local politician said the fire there had started in several places simultaneously.
The timelapse below from NASA's Earth Observatory shows the plume of smoke from the fire in Alexandroupolis stretching across the country towards Italy.
On the island of Kefalonia, a firefighter was arrested Tuesday, accused of five cases of arson related to wildfires there. Two of those took place this year.
This week's fires are not the first of the summer for Greece, after mass evacuations on the island of Rhodes and blazes on Corfu and Evia in July.
"This summer is the worst since meteorological data began to be collected," Greece's Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Canary Islands and Tenerife have also faced wildfires, forcing locals and tourists to flee.
Climate change arsonists?
Oh no....they caught on...
Shoot on sight. Enough of this BS.
> Climate change arsonists? <
Either that or careless illegal immigrates. Like much of the rest of Europe, Greece has a real problem with the illegals.
Any idea where Al Gore might be vacationing?
bttt
Saw a global fire map in the last 24 hours or so, and honestly
it looked as if the whole world was on fire.
WTH is going on?
Gosh. Thank goodness nothing like that could happen in the continental USA.
You thought Hawaii had ‘History’ that’s burnt to a crisp right now?
Greece has that in spades. :(
Prayers up for quick thinking, brave firefighters and a low, LOW body count for a change!
Russia has serious wildfires too.
I do have to ask though, what about Canada, Maui, Greece, and as yet unspecified threatened locations? Don't we all smell something burning?
Given the tremendous number of people now at risk of brain, lung and other deadly/disabling diseases linked to wildfires and PM2.5, penalty for woodland arson does need to be the maximum.
Islamic State media is “encouraging ISIS followers to start wildfires in the U.S. and Europe as a new way of ‘waging jihad.’” Except that it really isn’t new. Three years ago in Israel, 13 Muslims were arrested for arson jihad as fires still raged through the northern port city of Haifa in “acts of terrorism.” And more recently, the Palestinians in Gaza have sent kites fitted out with incendiary devices across the border into Israel and have set fire to thousands of acres of cropland.
The Islamic State is seeking revenge since the death of its caliph Al Baghdadi, and finding creative ways to kill and destroy is all a part of the jihad. Attempt to cast terror into the hearts of disbelievers can come in any form.
More at link
The vandals at museums are prime suspects. If the authorities just chopped off their hands after those crimes, they’d have no way to hold the matches.
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