The big fire in Alexandroupolis that has been burning since the dawn of Saturday is raging.

A little while ago, 112 was called for the residents of Mesti, Dikella, Sykorrachis, Plaka, Mesimvria, Atarni, Aura, Komaro and Perama to evacuate to Komotini.

In a temporary stoppage of traffic on Egnatia Road from the height of the Eastern junction of Komotini Rodopi to the height of the Industrial Area (BI.PE) junction of Alexandroupoli, the traffic police proceeded in both directions, according to an announcement by the general regional police directorate of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace .

The interruption is due to the fires raging in the area.

The main fronts of the fire

On the fire fronts of the settlements of Plaka, the former settlement of Amphithea and on a very large front within the pine forest of Kirki which is ongoing and moves either south or west towards Sykorrachis, the unequal battle continues today, due to the special fire-meteorological conditions, the fire brigades of forces to extinguish the fire that has been burning in Evros since Saturday morning.

According to the data of the Fire Department, 214 firefighters with 11 groups of pedestrian sections and 59 vehicles, forces of the Hellenic Army, volunteer firefighters as well as water tankers and work machines of the E.S. and of the OTA. From the air, four firefighting aircraft and three firefighting helicopters are assisting in the extinguishing effort.

During the night the hospital was evacuated of Alexandroupolias the flames they reached the enclosure. Sixty-nine of them hospital patients have been transferred to passenger – ferry ship “Adamantios Korais” who takes them to Kavala, with the rest having already been transferred to other hospitals.

According to information, they did 115 transports with 30 EKAV ambulances from Alexandroupolis, Komotini, Kavala, Xanthi, Didymoteicho, Thessaloniki and three military under the orders of the president of EKAV, Nikos Papaefstathiou.

For business they arrived in Alexandroupolis and two units of the Special Disaster Department of EKAB and a mobile coordination center.

Of the 115 patients, 12 were neonates and 8 ICU patients. About 50 ambulatory patients were transported by buses.

The patients were taken to Komotini and Xanthi hospitals and the newborns to Kavala.

The operation was coordinated by the Deputy Minister of Health Marios Themistokleous and the president of EKAV Nikos Papaevstathiou.

Alexandroupoli

Nursing homes were evacuated

About 130 elderly people were removed from the Joakimio nursing home and Stavride ecclesiastical institution chronic sufferers of the I. Metropolis of Alexandroupolis, with the assistance of the municipal authority of Alexandroupolis.

Mayor Yiannis Zamboukis spoke to APE-MPE about the operation of transporting the elderly, noting that protecting them gave him the greatest satisfaction of his life.

“We asked for the assistance of KTEL Alexandroupolis, which provided buses for the transport to a safe place of the guests of the two structures of the Metropolis of Alexandroupolis. Escorted by police and with the help of the staff called by the priests, they were evacuated in two groups as the fire had approached the two buildings. Unfortunately, it was not possible to move about 70 elderly people who are bedridden for their safety, competent fire brigades went to the scene”.

Speaking to SKAI, the vice-mayor of Alexandroupolis Ilias Gasteridis said: “The ashes are falling from the sky, it’s like it’s snowing.”

During the night, the residents of the settlements were ordered to evacuate to Alexandroupoli via 112 Plate, Mattock, Long, New Chile, Olive grove, Fir, Pine and Saint George.

Meanwhile, in the fire burning in her forest Nanny yesterday a dead man was found, who is probably a migrant. The unfortunate man was found by an employee of the Forestry Department of Soufli, at a point where the fire that broke out at noon yesterday in the National Park of Dadia – Lefkimi – Soufli had passed.

The young man died of asphyxiation.

The front of the Rhodopes

The situation has improved since the morning in the fires that broke out yesterday afternoon in a forest area in the area of ​​Mischos and in Ano Drosini in Rodopi.

“Today things are a bit more optimistic, there is a relative control of the fires, despite the strong winds that continue to blow in the area,” Rodopis deputy governor, Nikos Tsalikidis, told APE-MPE.

He noted, however, that “yesterday will be etched in our minds, since more than 10 houses were burned in Sosti, Polyanthos and Linos, crops were destroyed, animals were burned and there were injuries.”