it s not difficult to illustrate the huge damage being wrought on the planet. greece is continuing to battle raging wildfires on the country s second largest island, evia. the fires have been burning for a week after the most severe heatwave in 30 years. the greek prime minister said they were facing a natural disaster of unprecedented dimensions and it was obvious the climate crisis was now knocking on the door of the entire planet. more than 600 firefighters are trying to control blazing forests which have destroyed homes and businesses. our correspondent bethany bell reports from evia. fires rage on in evia. it s been a week and they re still not under control here. greece is experiencing its worst heatwave in decades. the searing temperatures and scorching winds mean these forests are like a tinderbox.
and in all parts of evia, we heard from the prime minister saying that there have been issues and weaknesses in their response. the locals here have told us that for so many days, they did not receive the needed assistance and that ask why fires in evia carried on for seven days. almost half of evia, virgin forest has been burned to the ground. homes have been lost. hundreds of people have been evacuated. of course now emergency assistance from international countries and other countries have arrived in evia. we ve also been seeing many pickup trucks driving past with water for assistance. volunteers, locals, men and women coming together, putting out fires with branches. and those are the kind of scenes that we have been witnessing. but importantly here, rosemary, you also have this big worry about what s to come. when you have so much forest and so many people livelihoods being
translation: it s obvious | that the climate crisis is now knocking on the door of the entire planet, with fires that last weeks. this is a reason, but it s not an excuse nor an alibi. and i will say it clearly. we may have done whatever is humanly possible, but in many cases that did not appear to be enough in the unequal battle with nature. the eu is mobilising what it calls one of the biggest common firefighting operations 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. he 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
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 in 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. the prime minister has promised more money to tackle the fires and their aftermath.
called a nightmarish summer. nearly 600 fires have broken out across the country since latejuly, fuelled by strong winds and the worst heatwave in decades. the biggest is in evia, an island north east of athens, which has been ablaze for a week. help has been flown in by other countries, including british firefighters. i haven t seen fires like this before in the uk, it s something that s completely new to me. i ve seen grass fires and open area fires, but this is just something on another scale. they are helping with manual tools, trying to put in fire breaks and stopping the fire from spreading. there has been public anger at the government response, something the greek prime minister has apologised for. but he says climate change is causing fires that last for weeks, speaking just hours after the un warned that human activity is making extreme weather events more common. something locals say they are experiencing first hand. we didn t see any rain