Fires have ravaged entire groves of mastic trees on the island of Chios. Officials on the island are mourning a catastrophic loss of mastic trees, which grow only on Chios.
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The destruction in the villages of Elata, Vessa and Lithios is particularly extensive while the villages of Mesta and Olympous is also bad.
The fire broke out late Monday night and was fanned by windy conditions.
Authorities have declared a state of emergency while dozens of firefighters and aircraft were deployed to fight the forest fire. The Northern Aegean regional governor spoke to CNN Greece and described the scale of the destruction as “catastrophic.”
Fires on Chios have destroyed mastic groves that only grow on the island and nowhere else in the world. This is the second time since 2012 that major fires destroyed large swaths of land (Photo from 2012 fires)
Photos from CNN Greece.
