Wildfire rages in Greece’s Evia island, one village evacuated

ATHENS (Reuters) – A wildfire raged out of control in central Evia, Greece’s second-largest island, on Saturday with authorities ordering the evacuation of one village, the fire department said.

Fanned by strong winds, the blaze spread across the slopes of mountainous forest in Gaia and authorities ordered the evacuation of the village of Kremastos as a precaution as the blaze got as close as 800 metres from some homes.

About 70 firefighters were battling the blaze on the ground assisted by nine fire dousing planes and four helicopters before the night set in.

Evia suffered devastating forest fires last summer that destroyed about a third of its forest cover.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; editing by Grant McCool)