VOA News | Sunday, August 27, 2023 
More Than 600 Firefighters, Water-Dropping Aircraft Struggle to Control Wildfires in Greece 

Athens — More than 600 firefighters, including reinforcements from several European countries, backed by a fleet of water-dropping planes and helicopters were battling three persistent major wildfires in Greece Sunday, two of which have been raging for days. A massive blaze in the country’s northeastern regions of Evros and Alexandroupolis, believed to have caused the deaths of 20 people, was burning for a ninth day. The blaze, one of the largest single wildfires ever to have struck a European Union country, has decimated vast tracts of forest and burnt homes in the outlying areas of the city of Alexandroupolis. On Sunday, 295 firefighters, seven planes and five helicopters were tackling it, the fire department said. The wildfire has scorched 77,000 hectares (770 square kilometers) of land and had 120 active hotspots, the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service said Sunday…Read more