A fire broke out at the beach of the Souda Naval base near Chania on the island of Crete on Tuesday morning and spread quickly due to strong winds blowing with intensity of 8 Beaufort. Facilities in the Naval station including the hospital were evacuated, but also schools and kindergartens in the area.
The fire broke out short after 8 o’ clock in the morning at the beach of the Naval station and spread very quickly as you can see in the exclusive video by local media zarpanews.gr below:
The blaze forced the evacuation of all personnel-related facilities of the Naval Station, such as the local settlement, the hospital and the school as precaution.
An evacuation message was sent to residents in the area via the <112> emergency line.
A total of seven schools, including kindergartens and primary schools, were evacuated as a precaution.
It should be noted that right from the beginning, the blaze was characterized as particularly dangerous not only because it was close to a residential area but because it spread very quickly due to the powerful winds.
Video:
The fire was brought under control after several hours, with few spot fires remaining, the Fire Service said early afternoon Tuesday.
According to local media, 120 firefighters, five units on foot and 40 fire engines vehicles operated against the blaze along with Navy officers from the station and volunteers as well as two helicopters, one from the Fire Department and one from the Souda base.
Fire fighting forces continue to operate and will remain in the area to prevent strong winds from rekindling the flames.
No injuries, damages to infrastructure or residences have been reported, so far.
A total of 200 people have been evacuated from the area, mayor of Chania, Panagiotis Simandrakis, told media.
Meanwhile, the wildfire on the island of Paros that broke out on Monday was taken under control.
Just by coincidence there was an emergency alert (earthquake etc) yesterday morning – it said “don’t worry, we are just testing”. Amazing.