ATHENS: A forest fire in central Greece has killed two men who were helping firefighters tackle the blaze, authorities said Monday.
The fire near Corinth, 140 kilometers (87 miles) west of Athens, has forced several villages to evacuate.
Anastasios Giolis, the deputy governor of Corinth, told public broadcaster ERT that two men were killed fighting the flames, calling it a “tragic accident.”
The men’s charred bodies were found near the village of Ellinikon, according to media reports.
Two firefighters were slightly injured, fire services told AFP.
The fire broke out on Sunday and spread rapidly due to strong winds, making it “difficult to control,” the fire services said.
Five localities near the fire were told to evacuate, including Pyrgos, Elliniko and Kallithea.
Fifteen vehicles, seven water bombers and three helicopters were deployed to fight the blaze on Sunday, according to the fire brigade.
Numerous regions of Greece were placed under an orange fire alert on Sunday and Monday due to winds reaching speeds of 50 to 75 kilometers an hour.
The summer wildfire season in Greece this year has seen daily blazes after the Mediterranean country recorded its warmest winter and the hottest June and July since reliable data collection began in 1960.
In August, a massive blaze near Marathon, 40 kilometers northeast of Athens, killed one person and forced thousands to flee their homes.
Two killed fighting wildfire in Greece
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Two killed fighting wildfire in Greece
- Anastasios Giolis, the deputy governor of Corinth, told public broadcaster ERT that two men were killed fighting the flames, calling it a “tragic accident”
More than 9,000 flights canceled as major winter storm bears down across much of US
- “Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X
DALLAS: More than 9,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend have been canceled as a major storm expected to wreak havoc across much of the country threatens to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways.
Roughly 140 million people were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England.
The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X.
Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 24 Celsius.
About 68,000 power outages were reported across the country at 8 a.m. ET, about 27,600 of them in Texas. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted.
Temperatures reached minus 34 C just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
