Two Heroic Air Force Pilots Dead While Battling Wildfires in Greece

Two air force pilots were killed after their aircraft crashed while battling wildfires on the Greek island of Evia.

The air force confirmed that a Canadair CL-215 crashed on Tuesday at 2:52 p.m. (11:52 GMT) during a firefighting operation in Platanistos.

Greek television aired a video of the water-bombing plane flying low to drop water on fire before turning quickly into a hillside and bursting into flames.

The pilots were identified as Christos Moulas, 34, and his co-pilot, Pericles Stefanidis, 27, the BBC reported.

Three-day mourning period

The Ministry of Defense said the Greek Armed Forces have declared a three-day mourning period for the loss of the lives of the two pilots.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis offers his condolences to the victims.

"They gave their lives saving lives, proving how risky their daily firefighting missions are," he continued. "The state respectfully stands by the families of the two heroes. They are two children, two brothers of all of us."

A local news organization said the wife of Moulas is three months pregnant with their first child.

The deaths are the first to be reported in Greece, where hundreds of firefighters, aided by Turkish and Slovakian authorities, have been battling wildfires blazing on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu, and Evia for nearly a week as the Mediterranean suffocates under a scorching heat wave.

The firefighter on the ground, believed to be the last person to speak to the pilots, still cannot believe the untimely deaths of his colleagues.

"We had contact with them," he told Greek broadcaster OPEN, as quoted by The Independent. "They did not report any problems with the aircraft. They told us, 'We are ready to try. We go for a last supply and we leave."

Read Also: Greece Suffers From Challenging Heat, Wildfires; EU Provides Support, Firefighters

Thousand hectares of forest burned

A third consecutive heat wave in Greece brought temperatures back above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across the country.

According to the WWF Greece, an environmental NGO, fire has destroyed 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of forest and other land in the country in the past week.

The Greek fire service said the worst fires recorded on Tuesday were on the southern island of Rhodes and the northwestern island of Corfu, both of which are famous tourist destinations.

Four communities on Rhodes were ordered evacuated as an eight-day-old fire moved inland, torching hilly forest areas, including a nature reserve.

On Corfu, five more evacuations were ordered, while one was ordered overnight on Evia.

More than 20,000 people, mostly tourists, were evacuated from Rhodes over the weekend as fires spread over two coastal regions, according to the report from Al Jazeera.

The prime minister has declared war with the wildfire, and asked his minister to be on constant alert.

"All of us are standing guard. In the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot-spot, there is no magical defence mechanism," he added.

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