Firefighters, volunteers and residents of Akoumia in Rethymnon battled throught the night and had by Wednesday succeeded in containing a fire which started on Tuesday and quickly spread across the wider area, reaching Triopetra and Agios Pavlos, Melampes and Krya Vrysi, south of Rethymnon.
A total of 150 firefighters with 50 fire brigade vehicles, dozens of water tankers supplied by the municipality of Agios Vassilios and the regional authorities, as well as municipality firefighting vehicles with reinforcements from other prefectures fought the fire, which extended for many kilometers and was still ongoing but under control. Early on Wednesday, the firefighting forces were reinforced by two helicopters.
Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), the deputy governor of Civil Protection of Rethymno, Michalis Sarris, said the firefighting forces battled to prevent the flames from engulfing settlements that were a short distance from the two fronts. For this reason, he said, a message was sent via the emergency number 112.
