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Meanwhile, a demonstration erupted in front of Sri Lanka’s Trincomalee Naval Base after allegations that former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and several of his family members had arrived after leaving their official residence in Colombo, according to a media source. Trincomalee is a port city on Sri Lanka’s northeast coast. Even when a throng attempted to enter Rajapaksa’s official Temple Trees mansion early Tuesday morning, he left.
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]]>The post Greek’s second largest island gets engulfed by fire, residents urged to flee. appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>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.
The blaze now is the most severe of dozens that broke out in Greece in the wake of the country’s most protracted heat wave in three decades, which sent temperatures soaring to 45 degrees celsius for days and created bone-dry conditions.
Three patrol boats and a ferry were on standby at Peki to evacuate residents .
Around 350 people already boarded the ferry and 23 people were picked up by coast guard as fire cut off many road-based escape routes.
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]]>On the nearby island of Evia, the Greek coast guard mounted a massive operation with patrol boats and private vessels to evacuate hundreds of residents and vacationers by sea as dozens of fires burned across the country for a third day amid a protracted heat wave.
One of the most severe blazes tore through forest areas 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) north of the capital, destroying more homes. Ground crews of several hundred firefighters dug fire breaks and hosed the flames.
Traffic was halted on the country’s main highway connecting Athens to northern Greece as crews tried to use the road as a firebreak before water-dropping planes resumed flights at first light. But sparks and burning pine cones carried the fire across the highway at several points.
Several firefighters and volunteers were hospitalized with burns, health officials said. Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said nine people had been taken by ambulance to hospitals in Athens from the fire north of the Greek capital, three of them suffering breathing problems, while 11 more were being treated in a health center on Evia.
“We are going through the 10th day of a major heat wave affecting our entire country, the worst heat wave in terms of intensity and duration of the last 30 years,” Fire Service Brig. Gen. Aristotelis Papadopoulos said.
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]]>“We are working around the clock to send help as fires rage across Europe,” commissioner Janez Lenarcic said in a statement.
“I thank Cyprus, Czechia, France, Slovenia and the Netherlands for swiftly deploying firefighting airplanes, helicopters and a team of firefighters to support countries heavily affected by forest fires.”
The dispatch of the aircraft and firefighters were being coordinated by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, with the European Commission picking up most of the mobilisation cost.
Greek firefighters have been battling several heatwave-fuelled forest infernos, including around Athens that have destroyed or damaged dozens of homes and businesses and forced the evacuation of villages, and others in the south and on the island of Euboea.
Devastating fires have also scorched parts of Italy, including in Sicily and near Rome.
Both Greece and Italy are EU member states.
EU help was also being given to non-EU neighbours, in the form of two helicopters sent to Albania and 45 Slovenian firefighters to North Macedonia.
The European Union earlier this week deployed firefighting help to Turkey, which is also struggling with violent summer wildfires that have sent residents and tourists scrambling to safety.
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