A fire broke out on a tourist boat in the Volimes area of Zakynthos, approximately 3 miles from land. The tour boat started out on its daily tour towards the famous blue caves and shipwreck when a fire broke out in the engine room.  There were 168 passengers and 7 crew members on board at the time.
Immediately help arrived and all 168 passengers plus crew where transferred to safety back to the port of Agios Nicholaos. 

According to initial information, the Fire Department is attempting to tow the vessel to shore in order to extinguish the fire. It is also noted that the towing process to the port of Agios Nikolaos is considered particularly difficult and is expected to take quite some time. 

​source:- Ionian TV and Ert news Zakynthos. 

Three failures in the main water supply pipelines have been dealt with by D.E.Y.A.Z. (waterboard of Zakynthos) in the last few hours.

1. Failure in the main water supply pipeline in the Municipal Community of Lithakia in the “Desyla area”

2. Failure in the main water supply pipeline in the Municipal Community of Pigadakia in the “Kalamakia” area

3. Failure in a pipeline in the Municipal Community of Katastari in the “Mavra” area.

D.E.Y.A.Z. crews are already working to repair the failures in Lithakia and Pigadakia, while the failure in Katastari will be repaired on Monday and the water supply in the area is being dealt with by D.E.Y.A.Z. aquifers.

We ask for the understanding of the citizens.

There will be continuous updates on the restoration of the failures on the D.E.Y.A.Z. website.
Source. deyaz

In the morning hours today, the Port Authority of Agios Nikolaos Volimes was informed that a 57-year-old foreigner (Polish national) passenger of a passenger-tourist boat, lost consciousness during a swim in the sea area of ​​Shipwreck Bay, Zakynthos. The 57-year-old was initially provided with first aid by bathers, while he was then transported by ambulance to the Zakynthos General Hospital "AGIOS DIONYSIOS", where he was pronounced dead. A preliminary investigation is being conducted by the Agios Nikolaos Volimes Port Police Station.

Source:- imerazante.gr

A 46-year-old Dutchman was arrested yesterday morning by police officers from the Zakynthos Traffic Department, who, in the early hours of Saturday, on the Laganas - Kalamaki provincial road, ran over and left injured a 31-year-old man, a resident of Zakynthos, with the car he was driving.

The injured man, who was driving an electric moped, is being treated, out of danger, with fractures and a broken neck, at the Rio hospital.

The case file filed against the 46-year-old will be submitted to the Zakynthos Criminal Court Prosecutor.
For the story in Greek click on the source link below:-
www.ertnews.gr/news/eidiseis/ellada/

​From the afternoon of Monday, August 4th until Wednesday, August 6th, there will be a water supply interruption in the areas of Ampelokipi, Kipi, Kalamaki, Panagoula, Argassi, Vasiliko, due to scheduled repairs to the main water supply pipeline in the area near the Airport.

Thank you for your understanding and the service will try to cause as little disruption as possible.
source:- ​deyazakynthos.

“I managed to get the people into their boat with a life jacket”

A dangerous incident occurred in waters around the Myzithres area, when a family of tourists from abroad were stranded due to strong waves.

The family, who had rented a boat, panicked, whilst the woman and her daughter swam to an isolated beach in the area. The man and son stayed on the boat, but found that due to the waves, they would not be able to safely return to the boat. At the critical moment Dimitris Tsironis, a former lifeguard who works for a private boat company, heard the family’s calls for help and intervened to rescue them.

“While going to Myzithres to watch the sunset, we noticed a boat calling for help from afar. I approached to see what was happening, and the man who was about 45 years old with his minor son told me that they had a problem with the boat and could not approach the shore, they had taken on water and the waves were very high. In fact, approaching by boat was impossible, because in the first two meters of the shore there was a wave of 1.5 meters, as a result of which I had to swim out with a life jacket to get the woman and daughter swimming”, initially emphasized Mr. Tsironis, who explained that he helped the woman and daughter get back to the boat.

“I took the little girl, the minor, first. The woman was in a panic and I tried to calm her down, and then I “tugged” her with a life jacket to get into the boat, which was about 50-60 meters from the shore”.

He then explained how the incident happened and why the people got off the boat.
“They got off the boat because they were scared. However, they later realized that the only way to escape was by boat, but the man could not bring them back to shore due to the waves. I swam, because there were too many waves and I could not reach them with my own boat. Also, the beach is an hour from Marathonisi and is isolated, meaning that after me, no other boat passed, and it was getting dark. They got into their boat and returned to their destination.”

Mr. Tsironis stressed that boat owners should be careful and give orders when giving a boat to a tourist who may not know how to handle it.
“It would be good for boat owners to give orders and do an inspection before giving out a boat, even if it is less than 30 horsepower, because there are people who have never been to sea. If they judge that they are not capable, it is better not to give out a boat, because someone could be in danger.”
​
Mr. Tsironis explained that the legislation allows someone who does not have a license to drive a boat under 30 horsepower, however, if someone does not know how to handle it, it is dangerous.
“Under 30 horsepower, if it is a boat, someone does not need to have a speedboat license. I think that an evaluation should be made. Certainly, it will be bad if the legislation changes for some owners. There are also cases where they go to areas where people swim and pass by bathers without understanding the danger.”

Source:- www.imerazante.gr/

It was located in the underwater area, we have room for a much larger tremor without any problems, the president of OASP, Efthymios Lekkas, told ERTNews about the strong seismic tremor measuring 5 on the Richter scale that occurred on Friday afternoon at 19:24 in Strofades, off the coast of Zakynthos.

In any case, the area is being monitored after a tremor of such magnitude. It was not even felt in Kefalonia or the Peloponnese and it is not related to the tremors that occurred earlier in Lixouri, the president of OASP added.

According to a geodynamic institute, the epicenter of the tremor was 60 kilometers west of Strofades and the focal depth is estimated at 10.8 kilometers.

People who are living in Zakynthos posted across social media mentioning the event, and that they felt slight movement while others mentioned they didn't feel a thing. 

It's important to note that Zakynthos' approach to Anti-seismic construction and regulations are very strict and have changed radically for a better future with new improved buildings. 

Source:-  www.naftemporiki.gr/society/1980476/e-lekkas-gia-seismo-sti-zakyntho-den-yparchei-logos-anisychias-einai-ston-ypothalassio-choro/

The Mayor of Zakynthos, George Stasinopoulos, stated:
​“A new era is beginning for our city. For the first time, Zakynthos has 7 new municipal parking lots, 5 in our city, over 2000 parking spaces connected to the city center and all of this for FREE.
Traveling to the City Center is finally becoming easier. We are providing a definitive solution to a perennial problem.
I would like to thank the entire municipal authority and the services of the Municipality that carried out this unprecedented process.
I would like to invite the citizens of the island, our visitors, to embrace this effort together, to get to know our city differently again.”
This new circular service connects the new municipal parking lots with the city center, facilitating comfortable, fast and environmentally friendly travel.

As we can see from the picture above, the route is circular, with continuous routes to and from the city center.
Route to Dionysios Solomos Square (Zante Center):
1. Old Hospital
2. Kaminia – Zakynthos Bus Station
3. Kydoni – Jumbo
4. Agios Dionysios
5. Agios Loukas Square
6. Dionysios Solomos Square
​
Return to Old Hospital (without Kydoni – Jumbo stop):
1. Dionysios Solomos Square
2. Agios Loukas Square
3. Agios Dionysios
4. Kaminia – Zakynthos Bus Station
5. Old Hospital
6. *passengers heading to the “Kydoni – Jumbo” stop remain on the bus and disembark on the return trip to Solomos Square.
• Opening hours: Daily 07:00 – 23:00
• Frequency of routes: approximately every 20 minutes.

source:- www.facebook.com/stasinopoulos3

It was a normal Friday night on Zakynthos when Zakynthos Informer spotted a breaking news Facebook post and video, that said a wildfire had broken out on the island. Immediately, the news spread and people started sharing it to Facebook, which started to cause concern and panic amongst locals and tourists.

Zakynthos Informer immediately checked the local news and their island contacts, including the fire department, only to discover there was no fire on the island. By this time, however, the post and its video, had been shared across Facebook 38 times and the video had over 30k views.

Zakynthos Informer tagged the post owners to say the information was incorrect, but the post remained live. They then messaged and tagged admins of other Zakynthos pages to let them know the information was wrong so that any shared posts could be removed.

The main posts still remained live with views and shares going up…spreading news across the world about the Zakynthos wildfire, that wasn’t…

Zakynthos Informer then directly messaged the original Facebook page owner, to explain the situation. Whilst waiting for a response, we screenshot the video image and uploaded it to Google reverse image search. The multiple return hits confirmed that the video was of a wildfire, on the mainland in the area of Agios Dimitris Koropi, Attiki.

Eventually, after receiving our messages and reverse image screenshot, the original post was taken down.

Be careful what you share! 

Millions of people use Facebook as their go to for information. At Zakynthos Informer we pride ourselves on getting the facts on anything that happens on our island, before posting. There are always two sides to a story and there can often be inconsistencies or fake news that ends up being innocently shared by Facebook users, which in the end can be incredibly harmful.

We’re not writing this post to “show off” or say “we saved the day” - we don’t care about that - we’re writing it to point out how badly misinformation can spread and cause serious upset and damage, and the steps it can take to sometimes get these situations resolved.

Last night there were parents on Facebook panicking about their children who were on holiday on Zakynthos.
Last night there were holidaymakers and visitors who worried that their holiday may have just turned into a nightmare.
Last night there were frustrated business owners and locals commenting to refute the information and being ignored.

None of this was necessary.

So please, before you share Facebook posts about the island and any serious incidents relating to it.
Stop and think.
​Is the post real?
Is the post from a reputable source?
Will the post do more harm than good?

We’re not the Facebook Police (what an awful job that would be right?), but we don’t want to see anyone upset or endangered because of inconsistent or fake posts, when a simple two minute check could go a long way to saving time, stress and a lot of aggravation.

If you'd like to learn more about the Do's an Don'ts of Fire Season we have some helpful advice on our website.