Fire devours Greek island’s forests; residents urged to flee
PEFKI, Greece — Pillars of billowing smoke and ash turned the sky orange and blocked out the sun above Greece’s second-largest island Sunday as a days-old wildfire devoured pristine forests and encroached on villages, triggering more evacuation alerts.
The fire on Evia, an island of forested mountains and canyons laced with small coves of crystalline water, began Aug. 3 and cut across the popular summer destination from coast to coast as it burned out of control. Scores of homes and businesses have been destroyed and thousands of residents and tourists have fled, many escaping the flames via flotillas that even operated in the dark of night.
The blaze is the most severe of dozens that broke out in the wake of Greece’s most protracted heat wave in three decades, which sent temperatures soaring to 113 F for days, creating bone-dry conditions.
“It’s already too late, the area has been destroyed,” Giannis Kontzias, mayor of the northern Evia municipality of Istiaia, lamented on Greece’s Open TV. He was one of several local officials and residents who took to Greek TV networks to appeal for more firefighting help, particularly from water-dropping planes and helicopters.
Evacuation orders were issued Sunday for four villages in northern Evia, including Pefki, but many residents refused to leave, hoping to save their properties.
In dramatic scenes Sunday afternoon, fast-moving flames had encroached on the seaside village of Pefki, burning trees on the fringes and entering the houses’ yards. Panicked residents raced with water tanks, hoses and branches in a seemingly futile effort to extinguish the flames.
Late Sunday, firefighters managed to stop the fire before it advanced further into Pefki, on the island’s northern coast. Pefki residents and tourists fled to the port of Aidipsos to take the ferry to the mainland port of Arkitsa, 150 kilometers northwest of Athens.
Acrid, choking smoke hung in the orange-grey air, turning the day into an apocalyptic twilight as people headed towards Pefki’s pebble beach, dragging suitcases, clutching pets and helping elderly relatives.
The ferry, carrying panicked, exhausted evacuees who had boarded the vessel before the advance of the fire was halted, arrived at Arkitsa on Sunday evening. Passengers complained they had been left to fend for themselves as the fire approched.
“We were completely forsaken. There were no fire brigades, there were no vehicles, nothing!” David Angelou told The Associated Press, adding that the villagers’ hoses were inadequate to stop the fire.
Melissa DeRosa, top aide to Gov. Cuomo, resigns from role
ALBANY, N.Y. — Melissa DeRosa, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide, has resigned from her role, she told the media Sunday night, about a week after a state attorney general report found the governor had sexually harassed 11 women.
DeRosa joined Cuomo’s administration in 2013, eventually becoming one of the governor’s most trusted confidantes. She became his top aide in 2017.
“Personally, the past two years have been emotionally and mentally trying,” DeRosa wrote in her statement. “I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such talented and committed colleagues on behalf of our state.”
Fauci hopeful COVID vaccines get full OK by FDA within weeks
WILMINGTON, Del. — The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Sunday that he was hopeful the Food and Drug Administration will give full approval to the coronavirus vaccine by month’s end and predicted the potential move will spur a wave of vaccine mandates in the private sector as well as schools and universities.
The FDA has only granted emergency-use approval of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson &Johnson vaccines, but the agency is expected to soon give full approval to Pfizer.
The Biden administration has stated that the federal government will not mandate vaccinations beyond the federal workforce, but is increasingly urging state and local governments as well as businesses to consider such mandates. Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said “mandates at the local level need to be done” to help curb the spread of the virus.
“I hope — I don’t predict — I hope that it will be within the next few weeks. I hope it’s within the month of August,” Fauci said of FDA approval of the vaccine. “If that’s the case, you’re going to see the empowerment of local enterprises, giving mandates that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety and I strongly support that. The time has come. … We’ve got to go the extra step to get people vaccinated.”
Fauci’s comments come as the Biden administration is weighing what levers it can push to encourage more unvaccinated Americans to get their shots as the delta variant continues to surge through much of the United States.
Taliban takes key northern Afghan cities as battles rage
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters seized most of the capital of northern Afghanistan’s key Kunduz province on Sunday, and took another neighboring provincial capital after a monthlong siege. The advances were the latest in a series of blows to government forces as U.S. troops complete their pullout after nearly two decades in the country.
The militiamen planted their flag in the main square of Kunduz city, where it was seen flying atop a traffic police booth, a video obtained by the Associated Press showed.
It was the fourth provincial capital to largely succumb to Taliban fighters in less than a week, as they ramp up a push across Afghan’s regions, and wage an assassination campaign in the capital, Kabul.
Two provincial council members said the Taliban took control of the governor’s office and police headquarters after a day of firefights, as well as the main prison building, where 500 inmates including Taliban fighters were freed.
Fire-friendly weather to return to California
Thick smoke that held down winds and temperatures began to clear Sunday from the scenic forestlands of Northern California as firefighters battling the largest single wildfire in state history braced for a return of fire-friendly weather.
The winds weren’t expected to reach the ferocious speeds that helped the Dixie Fire explode in size last week. But they were nonetheless concerning for firefighters working in unprecedented conditions to protect thousands of threatened homes.
“The live trees that are out there now have a lower fuel moisture than you would find when you go to a hardware store or a lumber yard and get that piece of lumber that’s kiln dried,” Mark Brunton, operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said in an online briefing Sunday morning. “It’s that dry, so it doesn’t take much for any sort of embers, sparks or small flaming front to get that going.”
