Gale-force winds fanned wildfires across Greece on August 1 and 2, forcing hundreds of people including tourists to evacuate by sea from coastal towns west of Athens as firefighting crews battled multiple simultaneous blazes across the country.
The most dangerous fire burned near the coastal resort of Porto Germeno, roughly 60 kilometres northwest of the capital. Emergency alerts sent through Greece’s 112 warning system ordered evacuations from Porto Germeno, Psatha and Agios Vasileios before dawn on Saturday as residents found themselves trapped between two active fire fronts.
Around 500 people, mostly tourists, were evacuated by boat from Agios Vasileios after becoming hemmed in by the flames. Local reports said several homes were destroyed and a fire engine was completely burned. Massive plumes of smoke were visible from central Athens throughout the day.
A separate blaze on the Ionian island of Kefalonia prompted additional evacuation orders, while other fires burned in central Greece and on the mainland. Authorities reported that over 100 homes had been damaged in the Attica and Boeotia regions alone. Some 500 firefighters were deployed to the Athens-area fires alone.
The Greek crisis unfolded as Europe’s broader wildfire emergency continued to shift across the continent. In France, 1,500 firefighters fought a separate major blaze in Provence while authorities guarded the still-burning scar of a megafire near Bordeaux that had burned through the Landes forest in recent days. Spain also reported worsening fire conditions.
The European Union’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre warned earlier in the week that nearly all of Europe faced elevated wildfire risk as temperatures soared and humidity dropped across the Mediterranean basin. The EU agency said conditions were among the worst recorded for early August.
Greek meteorologists at the National Observatory of Athens estimated that 40 to 50 square kilometres of land had already been affected, though no official burned-area figure had been released. Firefighting aircraft resumed water drops at first light on Sunday as crews worked to prevent the blazes from reaching densely populated areas.
The wildfires come amid an already difficult summer for southern Europe, which has faced a series of extreme heat events. Scientists have linked the increasing frequency and intensity of Mediterranean wildfires to climate change, noting that longer dry seasons and higher temperatures create ideal conditions for large, fast-moving blazes.
Sources: Reuters, BBC News, eKathimerini
Author: Europe Desk
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