ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece, (SONNA) – Hospital patients were evacuated onto a ferry in the Greek port city of Alexandroupolis on Tuesday away from a wildfire raging uncontrolled for a fourth day as a new heatwave hit southern Europe.
Authorities urged residents to avoid the heat as France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere suffered hot, dry and windy conditions that scientists have linked to climate change.
Firefighters were also battling blazes in Spain and Italy.
In Alexandroupolis, in northeastern Greece, a ferry was turned into a makeshift hospital after 65 patients, including newborn babies, were evacuated from the University Hospital in the early hours.
Ambulances also ferried patients away from a nearby clinic.
Elderly patients lay on mattresses strewn across the cafeteria floor, paramedics attended to others on stretchers and a woman held a man resting on a sofa, an IV drip attached to his hand.
“I’ve been working for 27 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” said nurse Nikos Gioktsidis. “Stretchers everywhere, patients here, IV drips there … it was like a war, like a bomb had exploded.”
Several communities in the broader Evros region, near the border with Turkey, have been evacuated as authorities warned the risk of new fires remained high in the next few days.
The burned body of a man believed to be a migrant was found in a rural area near Alexandroupolis on Monday, a local police official said.
“Weather conditions are extreme and will remain extreme for the coming days,” Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis told ERT TV.
Source: Reuters
