A major wildfire, which erupted towards the end of the season, continued to rage on Monday evening along a stretch of the northern Peloponnese coast and above the hills of the resort town of Xylokastro, causing an interruption in traffic on the main Athens-Patras tollway.
Images in the evening showed flames encircling the coastal town of Lygia, with traffic on both directions of the roadway closed off and vehicles diverted to the old provincial coastal road. The stretch of affected highway was six kilometers.
The sudden and intense wildfire generated an extraordinary meeting on Monday with participation of the relevant civil protection minister, fire brigade leadership, law enforcement authorities and local officials, held in the affected settlement of Rozena.
Two local men perished in the wildfire on Sunday evening as their two motorcycles were surrounded by flames on a provincial road. The two victims were attempting to reach a friend, a local stockbreeder, and help him save his animals from a sheep pen in the hilly rural area overlooking Xylokastro from the south.
