Greece Battles Wildfires

GOUVES, Greece (AP) — Pillars of billowing smoke and ash blocked out the sun above Greece’s second-largest island and turned the sky orange as a days-old wildfire devoured pristine forests and triggered more evacuation alerts Sunday, while residents appealed for additional firefighting help. 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, burning out of control for five days. Scores of homes and businesses have been destroyed, and thousands of residents and vacationers have been evacuated. The blaze currently is the most severe of dozens that broke out in Greece in the wake of the country’s most protracted and intense heat wave in three decades, which sent temperatures soaring to 45 degrees Celsius (113 F) and created bone-dry conditions.