ever to help greece. but it is clear there will be many more difficult days ahead. simon jones, bbc news. 0ur correspondent bethany bell is on island of evia, one of the worst hit areas. here on the island of evia, the situation appears to be somewhat stabilising. 0vernight, the wind has dropped and that has made the task of fighting these fires easier for the fire crews who have been working such long hours to try to bring these blazes under control. it has been eight days now that the fires have been raging out of control here on the island, causing disruption, making people leave their homes, leave their hotels. and we have seen local volunteers going to the front line of the fire with anything they can to try to extinguish it. we have seen people bringing their tractors with trucks with any kind of tank of water that they can put on it. and even taking little fire
that s how the greek prime minister has described the wildfires that have caused so much devastation. the battle to contain them continues on the island of evia. more than 500 blazes have broken out across the country in recent days. firefighters have been joined by local residents trying to make the area safe. climate change is real and the heat, the heat wave affected this. we didn t see any rain to stop this fire. i used to run into this forest. i used to cycle. we used to go and collect fruits. now everything is gone. where the fires have been contained, it s now a case of counting the cost to the environment and to property. homes ruined, residents and holidaymakers forced to flee. in athens, protests. these demonstrators say the government hadn t done enough to prepare for such a disaster.
reignited. this is a fire that burned out of control in morning and literally incinerated an entire forest. officials tell us that almost half of evia has been burned, homes have been destroyed, thousands of people evacuated. we have seen a lot of international assistance, what you see behind me is a firefighter from slovakia, they arrived this morning bringing fire engines with them as well. it has been an incredible task to see the greek firefighters and authorities working together with international crew, locals tell us that the assistance is too little, too late. the prime minister has in the meantime apologized for the weakness in some of the response. here we are now seeing eight days of wildfires on the go. dozens of officers turning their backs literally on chicago s mayor during her visit to a hospital there. hear why. plus why are taxpayers and