Man heartbroken at witnessing Greek wildfires

A man has spoken of his devastation at seeing his home city, Athens, affected by wildfires.

Thousands of residents were evacuated from their homes when fires began on 10 August after Greece had experienced its hottest June and July on record.

Vasilis Klados, who now lives in Hereford, was visiting his home country and was 12 miles away from the impacted area. He said it was heart breaking to see.

Greek fire officials have said there were now no active wildfires in the Athens but firefighters continue to douse the ground. One woman died and dozens more were injured after the fires tore through 100,000 acres (40,470 hectares) of land.

Mr Klados said the sight of distant horizons glowing from the flames left him feeling helpless as his friends homes were engulfed by the blaze.

"It's very terrifying and tragic," he added.

"You're losing your property, you can't save anything really," he said.

He criticised the lack of relief from the Greek authorities in tackling the flames.

"People are helping each other you can't rely on the [system], it isn't working well. We have a saying in Greece 'all we have is each other'.

"Schools and gym halls are being used to shelter people affected by the fire.

"We need more firefighters and trucks, that's what everyone is saying. We hire more police than fireman."

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