[chris]

A wildfire that began on August 3, 2021 burned across Evia, Greece's second largest island, for days, cutting it from coast to coast and forcing repeated evacuations from villages on the northern shore.

Smoke turned the daylight orange. People made for the beaches with suitcases, pets and elderly relatives once the roads out were cut, and were taken off by sea.

The coast guard held patrol boats, navy vessels, a ferry, tourist boats and private craft on standby. Small ferries and boats lifted about 1,400 people off one seaside village and the beaches around it, and roughly 350 boarded a single ferry from the port of Aidipsos for the mainland at Arkitsa.

Evacuation orders covered four villages, Pefki among them. Some residents refused to go and stayed to fight the fire around their houses with hoses and water tanks.