Cyprus forest fire outbreak: Two fire fighter dies as efforts to put out blaze continues

Cyprus: Two fire fighters battling the ravaging fire outbreak in Cyprus has been confirmed dead. The fire fighters Marios Aristotelous, 44 and Andreas Sofocleous, 49 were in the same truck when the truck overturned into a ditch in their effort to advance towards the wild fire in the Solea region, along the main Nicosia–Troodos road, the Police said on Tuesday.

Both men died after succumbing to serious injuries.
Marios Aristotelous, death was confirmed at 11pm on Monday night at Nicosia General hospital.

His death comes just 24 hours after the death of his colleague, Andreas Sofocleous, the first victim to die in the inferno.
  
In a written statement by President Nicos Anastasiades, he expressed his deep condolences to the family of the deceased promising that the state will stand by the family.

“It is with great sorrow that I was informed late last night about the death of forest fire fighter Marios Aristotelous, who succumbed to his injuries while on duty in the battle to extinguish the disastrous fire in the Solea region,”  said the President.

Spokesman for Forestry Department, Andreas Christou said water-dropping aircraft continued their operations on Tuesday morning to control the wild fire.

“Forces are deployed around the perimeter of the fire,” he said.

“The main fronts (of the fire) are active, but because there is no wind we are making a great effort to extinguish the fronts,” he said. However, thick smoke has covered the entire area, making the work of the aircraft somewhat difficult, Christou added.

Greece, Israel, and the British have sent aircraft to help put off the fire with more aircraft expected from France and Italy on Tuesday.
The devastating forest fires that hit Troodos started during the weekend.

A 12 years old boy has been arrested who admitting to attempting to start a controlled fire in his grandfather’s garden only for the fire to quickly spread out of control.