Athens : Firefighters, volunteers and residents on the Greek island of Euboea joined together late on Monday to battle wildfires that have been blazing for eight consecutive nights.
Residents of the village of Kamatriades joined emergency crews to form a human chain as a wall of flames approached their homes in the early evening.
Large groups of young men with backpacks and masks joined in, according to images shown on television, Deutsche press agency (dpa) reported.
Greece has been battling wildfires nationwide for days, amid an unseasonably hot summer, with blazes reaching the suburbs of Athens.
The country’s firefighting resources are stretched to their limits and many citizens are angry, saying they feel abandoned to their fate by the government.
Alongside Kamatriades, the nearby towns of Istiaia and Avgaria were also evacuated.
Supplies of power and water failed in the areas where the fires are burning, forcing the fire brigade to deliver water in fire trucks.
Many of the helpers were armed only with twigs to beat out the approaching flames.
Such ground work is necessary particularly at night however, as firefighting planes and helicopters cannot fly in the dark, and otherwise, wildfires would spread unchecked.
Volunteers, residents and fire crews managed to prevent the flames from reaching several other villages late on Monday.
Elsewhere in Greece, lighter winds provided some respite, after wildfires were fanned, and new ones sparked, by heavy winds in recent days.
