The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/2021/08/10/uae-sends-helicopter-and-aid-to-support-greece-wildfire-response/" target="_blank">UAE has joined global efforts </a>to tackle bushfires in Greece by sending a helicopter to help contain flames in Athens. It also sent food, medical supplies and firefighting equipment through the Emirates Red Crescent. Kuwait’s Air Force has sent two planes carrying 40 firefighters and six fire engines, state news agency Kuna said. At least 22 nations have provided Greece with assistance to control fires that have ravaged the country for an eighth day, devastating forestry, destroying homes and causing thousands to flee for safety in what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called a “natural disaster of unprecedented dimensions”. “The last few days have been among the hardest for our country in decades,” he said on Monday. On Tuesday, firefighting efforts were focused on Greece’s second-largest island and popular tourist destination, Evia, where blazes caused widespread destruction on its forested mountains. At least 49,000 hectares of Evia’s landscape have been burnt, the EU’s global Wildfire Information System and Copernicus Emergency Management Service said. About 870 firefighters, 50 ground teams and 229 vehicles have been fighting flames there. Egypt and European nations such as Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Poland have sent reinforcements to assist in the effort to control the blaze. A striking report by the UN on Monday said the climate change threat was more severe than previously thought. It called the rising temperatures on the planet “a code red for humanity”. Greece is suffering from its worst heatwave in decades with temperatures of 45°C.
