Cyprus Mail 17 May 2020 - by Andria Kades
The fire near Kormakitis
As temperatures topped 42C on Sunday afternoon, Cyprus was dealing with five fires across the island, with two in Ayia Napa, one near the Limassol-Nicosia highway in Kakorazia, another in the north and a smaller one in Paphos.
As the north was battling flames in the Diorios and Kormakitis villages, Turkish Cypriot authorities asked Turkey for help, requiring two helicopters. The Republic also sent one aircraft from the forestry department and one helicopter.
“At the moment we have only provided aerial help, but we are prepared to send help on the ground if it is asked of us,” fire services spokesman Andreas Kettis told the Cyprus Mail.
Efforts were underway to get the fire under control but winds were making the situation all the more difficult, the Cyprus News Agency reported.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, ‘Prime Minister’ Ersin Tatar and other top officials were at the scene.
Akinci said it was too soon to say what the cause was. The road between the two villages was closed off.
As the fire department brought the fire near the Limassol highway under enough control to reopen those sections of the road which had been closed, fire services also had to tackle two separate fires in Ayia Napa which began at around 2pm.
Kettis told CNA one fire was on the first exit to Ayia Napa from the Larnaca-Paralimni highway and the other was a few metres away, at the Ayia Napa roundabout.
Three firefighting trucks from the Famagusta fire station were at the scene and efforts were underway to get an aircraft to help. By 4pm, both fires were under control, Kettis told the Cyprus Mail.
Meanwhile in Chlorakas, Paphos, the fire services extinguished a fire there shortly before noon. Two fire trucks were at the scene though the fire burnt through two donnums of dry vegetation and garbage. Two homes and two trees sustained minor damage.
Investigations are underway to determine the cause.
