NICOSIA: Aircraft from Greece and Jordan were helping Cypriot authorities battle a large wildfire in the southwestern Paphos region believed to have been started by an illegal landfill, officials said Wednesday.
The fire broke out Tuesday east of the village of Giolou, triggering a national emergency plan that saw civil defense evacuate five mountain villages at risk.
Officials said two air tractors from the Royal Jordanian Air Force and two planes from Greece were deployed Wednesday to tackle the blaze in the rugged terrain.
Nicosia activated the European Union fire assistance protocol to seek help in containing the fire.
Fire service chief Nicos Logginos told state radio Wednesday that seven aircraft, including two Canadair planes from Greece, are operating over the active fronts.
He said that due to harsh terrain, ground forces are unable to reach the area.
Over 300 people, including fire crews, supported by bulldozers, are working to secure the perimeter of the fire.
Logginos said police have evidence the fire started from an illegal landfill site.
Around 48 people evacuated from the fire zone were taken to hotels, said local daily Kathimerini Cyprus.
The scale of the fire prompted President Nikos Christodoulides to return early from a Gaza aid summit in Jordan on Tuesday to visit the crisis control center.
During a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, he requested additional aerial support to combat the fire in Paphos.
Fire service spokesman Andreas Kettis said a number of homes suffered extensive damage or were destroyed, but the scale of the destruction has yet to be determined.
Residents have complained that homes were destroyed because of the slow response to the fire’s outbreak.
The community leader in the village of Lemona, Kyriakos Charalambous, told the Cyprus News Agency it took “too long” for aerial firefighting units to arrive.
Wildfires often erupt in Cyprus during the sweltering summer months on the island which suffers from a severe lack of rainfall.
The Department of Meteorology issued a yellow alert for Wednesday for extreme heat, with maximum temperatures expected to reach 41 degrees Celsius.
Cyprus recorded its hottest-ever June day last Friday as temperatures soared to an unprecedented 44 degrees Celsius, the department said.
Greece, Jordan assist in tackling Cyprus wildfire
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Greece, Jordan assist in tackling Cyprus wildfire
Indonesia nursing home fire kills 16: official
JAKARTA: A fire at a nursing home on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi killed more than a dozen people, with three others injured, a local official said Monday.
Firefighters received the report of the blaze at 8:31 p.m. Sunday at a nursing home in the North Sulawesi provincial capital Manado, said the city’s fire and rescue agency chief Jimmy Rotinsulu.
“There were 16 deaths; three (people) had burn injuries,” he told AFP.
Many bodies of the victims were found inside their rooms, Jimmy said, adding that many of the elderly residents were likely resting in their rooms in the evening when the fire broke out.
Authorities managed to evacuate 12 people — all unhurt — and transfer them to a local hospital, he said.
Footage aired by local broadcaster Metro TV showed the fire engulfing the nursing home, while locals helped to evacuate an elderly person.
Deadly fires are not uncommon in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.
A fire tore through a seven-story office building in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta this month, killing at least 22 people.
In 2023, at least 12 people were killed in the country’s east after an explosion at a nickel-processing plant.
