The China Mail - Firefighters battle second day of blaze on Greek island

"Within the day I believe the fire will be fully extinguished," Skyros mayor Kyriakos Antonopoulos told state TV ERT.

The fire, which broke out on Saturday, prompted the evacuation of two small communities, but Antonopoulos said no inhabited areas were under threat on Sunday.

Reinforcements to the island of some 3,000 have been rushed in from neighbouring areas.

“We must act quickly to bring this fire under control as soon as possible," Kostas Tsigas, president of the association of fire service officers, told the TV station.

"Fire commandos equipped with machinery and excavators are trying to clear a path in a difficult area. We hope the situation will improve during the day," Tsigas said.

Water bombers were able to operate after strong winds blowing through the night eased at daybreak.

Nearly a dozen aircraft and helicopters were assisting a force of around 100 firefighters on Skyros, a fire department press officer told AFP.

Carried by the winds, a long band of grayish smoke was visible Saturday evening in the sky over Athens.

It was still visible at midday Sunday, coming from the central and northern part of the island, as AFP reporters landed at the local airport.

Situated 110 kilometres (68 miles) northeast of Athens, Skyros is a mountainous island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Sporades archipelago, covering about 209 square kilometres.

- 34 fires -

After largely escaping the heatwave temperatures that blanketed much of Europe earlier this summer, Greece has been hit with several major wildfires since late July, fuelled by unusually strong winds.

Thirty-four fires have broken out over the past 24 hours around the country, according to the fire department.

Five firefighters have died so far, including a Danish pilot killed in a mid-air collision between two Bell helicopters while battling a blaze near Athens earlier this month.

There was another scare last week when about 500 tourists were evacuated from beaches on the Halkidiki peninsula in northern Greece as a forest fire threatened two popular resorts.

Some 20,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land have burned this year in major fires near Athens and on the islands of Crete and Paros.

Greece was on maximum wildfire alert this weekend, with islands and beaches packed with tourists, both local and foreign.

Winds are expected to ease later Sunday. According to the civil protection ministry, for the first time in 10 days, no area is above 3 on the national fire risk scale, which runs to 5, its highest level.

Greece is hit by wildfires every year. Experts say the risk is growing because of human-fuelled climate change, which has made droughts and other extreme weather event more severe.

E.Lau--ThChM