Limassol fire still burning, foreign aerial reinforcements expected
The fire in the Alassa dam area of Limassol on Monday is being surveyed and assessed via a helicopter, with fire-response coordinator, Director Andreas Gregoriou from the agriculture ministry on board.
Meanwhile aerial assistance is imminently expected to arrive from Greece, Lebanon and Israel, while evacuees from three villages are being housed at a nearby community centre.
Three helicopters from Jordan restarted airdrops at dawn.
The fire burned down electricity poles and several communities were out of power as of Monday morning, which has now been restored according to the electricity authority (EAC) website.
Following a flare-up between the communities of Korfi, Alassa and Apaisia, the fire continued to rage out of control on Sunday night. Despite no winds in the area the smoke reached as far as Limassol city.
On Monday, more aerial assistance is expected to arrive in Cyprus to help put out the fire, including from Greece, Lebanon and Israel.
The road to Gerasa-Apesia has been closed while other roads which had been closed on Sunday have re-opened, police announced on Monday.
Police are cautioning drivers who must travel in the area to be especially careful and comply with police instructions.
The first aircraft from Greece, one of two ‘Canadair’ type crafts, is expected to arrive by 10am.
Earlier, the villages of Apsiou, Mathikoloni and subsequently Apaisia, were evacuated as a precautionary measure and the evacuees are being housed in the Limnatis community centre.
Limassol District Officer Marios Alexandrou, said there were no injuries among the evacuees, while crews will start assessing property damages as soon as this becomes possible.
“At the moment the situation is being mapped. The airdrops have started, while there are many forces in the perimeter (of the fire) for control and surveillance,” Gregoriou told the Cyprus News Agency from the air.
The fire service announced on Sunday that the fire had been contained however, the front between the communities of Fasoula and Apsiou remained active with flare-ups.
Authorities at midnight convened a broad meeting chaired by acting president of the Republic and House speaker, Annita Demetriou.
The meeting, held at a coordination centre set up in the area between the communities of Paramytha and Fasoula, was attended by the ministers of justice and agriculture, the heads of the fire service, the forestry department and all other relevant services.
According to a social media post by fire chief, Andreas Kettis, firefighting forces are working intensely and the fire has been divided into sectors in cooperation with the forestry department during the night.
Ground forces also worked overnight to install water hoses and carve out fire breaks in hard-to-access areas.
“With the first light of day we start with aerial means for extinguishing active outbreaks and demarcations,” Kettis said in his post.
The cause of a fire remains unknown, authorities said on Sunday, while Limassol police spokesman Lefteris Kyriacou also said blaze, at that time, had burned around 3.5 square kilometres.
Kyriacou said authorities had identified the fire’s ‘ground zero’ but were still examining CCTV footage to determine what started the blaze on Friday.
According to Kyriacou, so far, it appears the fire spread from burning rubbish but the cause of the fire in the rubbish pile remains unclear.
Hundreds of firefighters and others, including volunteers, have been working since the fire’s start to manage the blaze with dozens of road vehicles and twelve aircraft, of which three are Jordanian helicopters.
The second ‘Canadair’ craft is expected to arrive from Greece at 5pm.
It is hoped that low winds will offer favourable conditions to bring the fire under complete control.