There seems to be no end to the forest fires in Cyprus, in which four people have died. Fire fighting helicopters and planes are trying to get the fire under control. But they cannot be deployed in the dark: “We are very afraid that the wind will change tonight,” says Dutch Christine Jansen, who lives on the island.
The fire could spread spreading past three days from the Troodos Mountains north of the cities of Limassol and Larnaca. It is an area with a lot of dense vegetation and because of the strong wind the fire quickly spread around. The forest fire started near the village of Arakapas. “It went through the village like a tornado, destroying everything,” said one administrator of the small community.
Authorities suspect the four dead are Egyptian workers. The men, aged 22 to 29, worked in a tomato greenhouse and are believed to have tried to escape the fire in a truck via a mountain road. The vehicle is believed to have run off the road and they were unable to flee on foot.
There was a heat wave on the island this week, with temperatures above 40 degrees. Police have arrested a 67-year-old man. Around the time the fire broke out, he is said to have set fire to garbage.
snake of fire
“Yesterday the fire was still almost 30 kilometers from my house and today it had come 10 kilometers closer,” says Jansen. She has lived in Cyprus for over twelve years. “This has never happened before.” From her house she drove to the area where the fires are raging. “It was an unbelievably long snake of fire that traveled over the mountains to where I was standing. Many farmers in the area let their herds of goats and sheep roam freely over the mountains. They probably all burned.”
Jansen encountered this situation near the forest fire:
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