There are still many, but at least smaller, fires in Greece.
People are now hoping for rain.
Many feel abandoned by the government.
Evia - "Yesterday we saw the sunlight for the first time in days": A bitter allusion to the huge billows of smoke over Evia.
It comes from the mayor of the Greek island city of Istiea, Giannis Kontzias.
But in the fight against the devastating fires, the authorities can now report slight progress, Kontzias told the state television broadcaster ERT.
Hundreds of houses have already been destroyed on the island and in other parts of Greece and three people have died.
On Tuesday (August 10), 21 villages in the region had been evacuated because the flames were getting closer.
Hundreds of firefighters continued to fight the flames on Wednesday (August 11).
News agencies provided pictures of burned-out houses.
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The remains of a house on Euboea that the flames have eaten through.
© Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP
Forest fires in Greece: "Conditions change every hour"
The situation in the mountainous region of Gortynia on the Peloponnese peninsula was worrying. The fire brigade is concentrating on keeping the fire away from the densely forested mountain Mainalo, said the vice-governor for the Arcadia region, which also includes Gortynia, Christos Lambropoulos, on ERT. "Villages don't seem to be in danger at the moment (...), but the conditions change every hour."
The fire brigade in Gortynia received reinforcements on Wednesday from numerous emergency services from abroad, including from Germany, France, Great Britain and the Czech Republic.
According to the German Fire Brigade Association, the support from Germany consists of 168 emergency services from Hesse and 56 more from North Rhine-Westphalia.
A total of 21 planes and helicopters, 250 vehicles and more than 1200 firefighters have been promised to Greece.
Almost 900 firefighters, including emergency services from countries such as Cyprus, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine, were on duty on Evia.
Seven fire-fighting planes and helicopters from abroad, including from Sweden, Switzerland and Serbia, also took part in the fire-fighting work.
Fire destruction in Greece: residents disappointed with government
Many people on Evia feel abandoned by the government.
Local politicians accuse the government of having sent fire-fighting planes to the island too late.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized on Monday evening (August 9) in a televised address to his compatriots.
At the same time, he emphasized that the fire brigade had to fight 580 fires in the past few days, which had been "difficult to extinguish" due to an "unprecedented heat wave and a long-lasting drought".
The weather now provides a glimmer of hope: rain has been announced on the island in the evening.
People hope that they will really come and be strong enough.
(AFP / dpa / frs)
List of rubric lists: © Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP