Two people have been confirmed dead and dozens more have been evacuated from their homes as the wildfire burning in the hills above Limassol remained out of control on Thursday afternoon.

The two who died were found in a burnt-out car on the road between the villages of Monagri and Alassa. The finding of a body in the car had first been reported at around 9pm on Wednesday, with a second body being found later in the evening.

Attempts to identify the bodies are ongoing. Shortly after 8am on Thursday, the car and the bodies were moved and transferred to the police.

Shortly after midday, fire brigade spokesman Andreas Kettis said the fire remains “out of control” near the village of Arsos, with new flare-ups having been recorded near the village of Koilani, near the Kourris dam, and in Kivides.

Overnight, dozens of people had been evacuated to temporary accommodation as the fire spread to residential areas of the affected villages.

Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis told CyBC radio shortly before 8am that the total number of people being housed in temporary accommodation stood at 106, and that “efforts are being made to accommodate them in hotel units”.

With some voices in the affected areas stating that the government could have done more and even accusing the government of negligence, he stressed that as far as he was concerned, the government did everything it could. “Everything that could have been done under the circumstances was done. This is not the time for apportioning blame. The fire must be brought under control. I understand the pain, the sadness, and the destruction of a lifetime’s worth of work, but that does not imply disorganisation on the government’s part,” he said

Earlier, civil defence spokesman Panayiotis Liasides had told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) shortly after midnight that civil defence teams were continuing their efforts to provide aid and relief to those affected.

Not all evacuation attempts were successful, however, with a rescue operation launched by the police and the national guard to extract 36 residents of the village of Lofou, who had become entrapped in the courtyard of the village’s primary school, ending in the evacuees being returned to the village.

The village’s mukhtar Ioannis Neophytou told CyBC radio that the villagers boarded a police minibus and were driven towards nearby Pera Pedi, where they “encountered a wall of fire” and were forced to turn back to Lofou.

Around 30 people spent the night in the school courtyard, while the rest are said to have returned to their homes.

Neophytou confirmed to CNA after 8am that those who remained in the village were safe, but said that around 20 villages in the north of the village burnt down.

“Around 20 houses burnt down, so far as we can see from afar, because we did not go close, in the north of the village, and some houses which are outside the village,” he said.

Later on Thursday morning, state health services organisation (Okypy) spokesman Charalambos Charilaou told newspaper Phileleftheros that there are currently 16 people hospitalised at Limassol’s accident and emergency unit due to injuries related to the fire, two of whom have suffered burns.

He later told CNA that the pair’s condition has been described as “serious, but not critical”.

“They have extensive burns. They are not intubated or on life support, but their condition is considered serious,” he added.

Meanwhile, he said, a first aid centre has been set up in the village of Erimi, which is mostly serving people presenting respiratory problems.

He added that there, around 40 people have presented themselves with symptoms, and that some of them have since been taken to the Limassol general hospital.

Kettis on Thursday morning said that a total of 250 firefighters and 75 fire engines are attempting to battle the blaze, while the skies above the Limassol district were filled with firefighting aircraft.

He also said the fire has burned around 100 square kilometres of land, and that while there was “no active front” as of 7.30am on Thursday, there are “intense flare-ups” which are expected to continue through the day.

Kourion mayor Pantelis Georgiou, meanwhile, said there were two “active fronts” in the village of Sotira.

“We have 10 air assets, with the 11th being the one coordinating them. They are carrying out airdrops, based on an assessment. Soon, the number will increase to 13,” Kettis had said.

He added that the fire brigade has “all our forces in the area”, but said that with windspeeds forecast to rise later in the morning, “the situation will be even more dangerous”.

Hartsiotis said shortly before 8am that the current aim is “to operate in the targeted areas until 11am, when the gusts of wind will intensify”

The fire began in the village of Malia on Wednesday afternoon, and has now spread to at least 10 nearby villages, including Omodos, Vasa, Koilani, Lofou, Pera Pedi, Monagri, Souni, Sotira, and Kantou, while around 10 people are thus far known to have been injured.

Meanwhile, the fire has also impacted Cyprus’ electrical grid, with electricity authority (EAC) spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulou telling CyBC radio on Thursday morning that extensive damage has been done to the area’s electrical infrastructure.

“The damage is enormous,” she said, saying crews on the ground had borne witness to “burnt cables and pylons”.

She added that it is “very difficult” to record damage at this stage, but that it had been confirmed that a substation in the area had been completely destroyed by the fire.

Later asked by CNA when she expects power to be restored to the affected area, she said it is “impossible to estimate at this time” because workers cannot get close to many of the affected areas.

“In the first stage, we will try to find alternative ways of supplying electricity there, where it is secured. We will be there, we will work non-stop, but if the fire is not completely extinguished, it is impossible to supply electricity,” she said.

As of dawn on Thursday, a total of 15 villages were without electricity, while part of the Limassol suburb of Ypsonas was also without power.

With dawn breaking, the impacted villages began to attempt to count the cost of the fire, with Souni-Zanakia village mukhtar Nikos Vikis saying the fire had broken out “when we least expected it”, and that it had “burnt our forest along with our houses”.

“We evacuated the village on our own… so many people. We asked for help, but got nothing,” he told CyBC radio, adding that his village is home to around 3,500 people.

“Panic prevailed. We do not know how many houses have been burnt down. The forest has been lost. We are a burnt village,” he said.

Later in the morning, he appeared on Politis radio and offered more criticism for the authorities, saying that “fire engines started coming to Souni when the fire had burnt half the village”.