- Nearly 600 firefighters with 160 fire engines and 24 aircraft were deployed in the mountains above the Gulf of Corinth
- Three water bombers from Italy and Croatia have been sent to help
ATHENS: Hundreds of Greek firefighters battled for the fourth day Wednesday to control a wildfire in the Peloponnese region that has killed two people and burned huge swathes of forest.
Nearly 600 firefighters with 160 fire engines and 24 aircraft were deployed in the mountains above the Gulf of Corinth, where the fire broke out Sunday.
A dozen villages have been evacuated and two men who were helping firefighters became trapped and died in the flames. Three firefighters were also hurt.
Three water bombers from Italy and Croatia have been sent to help.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told an Athens radio station it was “a difficult fire” but authorities aimed “to have a full de-escalation in the disparate pockets (of fire) still burning today.”
The Athens national observatory said that according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate observatory, the fire has burned 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) of forest and farmland.
A preliminary investigation suggested it may have been caused by a beekeeper smoking honey bees, officials said.
Another fire on Wednesday broke out nearby, in Kalavryta, but had been partially controlled, the fire department said. It added that more than 40 rural fires had been reported in 24 hours.