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ATHENS — After 10 days of fighting fires across the country, firefighters in Greece managed to get some of the fires under control on Thursday, but the storm was a mixed blessing: it put out some of the fires that burned for rain, but lightning ignited new ones.

Fire brigade spokesman Vasilis Vathrakoyiannis said in the morning that things are much better on Evia, the country’s second largest island, which has suffered the brunt of the fires, and that Arcadia is a region in the south of the country. “But lightning has created new small fronts,” Mr. Vathrakoyiannis said, adding that additional fire brigades have been dispatched to put out the new fires. However, some fires flared up again in Arcadia in the afternoon.

Radical changes are needed to prevent and respond to the “mega” bushfires that erupted violently in many parts of Europe this summer amid record-breaking heat waves, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday.

“The climate crisis is here,” Mitsotakis said at a press conference, adding that “everything has to change”, referring to energy policy, government services and how people treat the environment.

The Minister stated that the problem does not only affect Greece. rising temperatures and destruction from fires in Algeria, Sicily and Turkey. “This is not just a Greek phenomenon. This is the Mediterranean, it is global,” he said, adding that Mediterranean countries should work together against this “common crisis”.

Responding to criticism by Evia and those living elsewhere that the early evacuation of villages was responsible for the extent of the destruction in Greece, Mitsotakis said the tactic was aimed at saving lives. Open Evia and other fire zones of GreeceMany residents remained in place to fight the flames with water hoses and buckets, defying government calls to evacuate.

“We managed to protect thousands of people, but lost forests and property,” he said, referring to “the biggest ecological disaster of the past few decades.”

He added: “We did everything possible. But frankly, that wasn’t enough.”

Mitsotakis also rejected suggestions that the government delayed calling for outside support in fighting the fire, saying the request was made “within a few hours”. And he promised to increase bushfire protection funds and create a special unit to fight bushfires.

He said some residents’ claims that woodlands in Evia were deliberately burned to clear the way for wind farms were “totally unfounded”. But he highlighted his longstanding support for the transition to green energy as a way to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

“Wind farms are not the enemy. They are an ally in the effort to make this transition,” he said, adding that efforts are underway to phase out lignite-fired power plants in Greece and switch to greener energy alternatives.

“Negative experience from this onslaught of nature must be transformed into a positive force for change.”