A firefighting plane busy extinguishing a wildfire in the Greek island of Rhodes crashed on the island of Evia on Tuesday, as the uncontrollable fire continues to destroy homes, triggering a mass evacuation.
footage broadcast by ERT The plane was shown pouring water on the fire and then crashed into a hill and burst into flames.
Two airmen were on board when the amphibious Canadair CL-215 aircraft crashed on the island of Evia, east of Athens, according to the Greek Air Force.
The IAF said two helicopters rushed to the scene to carry out search and rescue operations, however, it did not disclose what happened to the people on board.
Hundreds of firefighters, with the help of Turkish and Slovakian armies, have been battling a fire that has raged on the island of Rhodes since Wednesday and flared up again in hot, windy conditions. More emergency flights were due to take holidaymakers home.
PM Mitsotakis said on Tuesday that while the next few days would be difficult, conditions would probably improve after Thursday.
“We are all on guard,” he said, adding: “There is no magical defense mechanism in front of the situation the whole planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean Sea, which is a climate change hotspot, if there were, we would have implemented it.”
Prosecutors in Greece launched an investigation into the cause of the Rhodes wildfires and the authorities’ preparedness and response. ERT Said.
It states that about 10% of the island’s land area has been burned.
Rhodes is one of the country’s largest islands and a top summer destination for millions of tourists.
Around 20,000 people were forced to leave their homes and hotels in Rhodes over the weekend as the fire spread and reached coastal resorts in the lush island’s southeast after burning land, killing animals and damaging buildings.
After a 2018 fire killed 104 people in the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, Greece has taken a more proactive approach to evacuations.
But critics say it has not improved its ability to put out the fires that are common in summer, although this year’s heatwave has been more intense.
Greece has seen very high temperatures in recent weeks and in some areas temperatures will rise to more than 44 Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) by Wednesday.
