Cyprus Fire Service responds to 382 calls during a day of severe weather

The Cyprus Fire Service responded to 382 incidents over the past 24 hours, bringing to a close a day of severe weather with thunderstorms and torrential rain on the island. According to the service’s spokesperson, Andreas Kettis, 21 calls concerned fires, 359 involved special operations and two were false alarms.

The two largest fires were caused by lightning strikes. At 09:52, a fire engulfed two metal structures adjoining a single-storey private house in the community of Avgorou in Famagusta District. They contained tools, equipment and car batteries, and three fire engines were sent to tackle the blaze. At 11:22, six vehicles were dispatched to Kokkinotrimithia, where an open area at an industrial building containing old cars, household electrical appliances and construction materials caught fire. Firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading to nearby buildings and vehicles parked alongside them; the cause is under investigation, although a lightning strike has not been ruled out.

Another fire at 13:27 destroyed the contents of an outbuilding in the community of Pera Oreinis (Pera Oreinis), adjoining the garage of a residential building; the roof had to be dismantled to bring the fire under control. A short circuit in a freezer is being cited as the likely cause. At 16:50, a crew assisted the Department of Forests in extinguishing dry grass and wild vegetation near the community of Androlikou in Paphos District.

At 16:54, the service received a call from the Search and Rescue Coordination Centre: after the storm, a person went missing near Cape Greco, in the marine area of Agia Anargyri, and was believed to have taken shelter on the rocks. The person was spotted from a helicopter, and rescuers lifted the casualty and took them to the emergency department of Famagusta Hospital. At 17:55, firefighters freed a person trapped in a car after two vehicles collided on the Limassol–Platres road near the village of Alassa (Alassa).

By nightfall, the calls became less serious. At 20:35, a parked car caught fire in a supermarket car park in Lakatamia; the rear seat was destroyed, and a faulty battery was recorded as the cause. At 23:32, also in Lakatamia, in the Archangelos Michael neighbourhood, firefighters extinguished rubbish that had caught fire in the kitchen of a residential building. The previous day, severe weather had already cut power to areas of Larnaca, Nicosia and Paphos and diverted 11 flights to alternate airports.