According to the EU Commission, the current fires in the port city of Alexandroupolis are the largest in the history of the European Union: Last Saturday, the inferno started in Greece in the border region of Evros, the fire is still out of control. In Alexandroupolis, the hospital was evacuated on Monday evening as a precaution.
There is also a large-scale fire near Athens. In the meantime, the flames have penetrated as far as the Parnitha mountain range, which with its pine forest is considered the green lung of Athens and is a national park area. Dense clouds of smoke spread over the Greek capital, some of which even covered the sun. According to a report in the daily newspaper “Kathimerini”, up to 80 percent of the entire area of Greece was covered by clouds of smoke. They have long been clearly visible on satellite images.
From last Friday to Tuesday, the fire brigade was called to 355 forest fires, said Citizen Protection Minister Vasilis Kikilias at a press conference on Wednesday. “It’s the worst summer since records began,” said Kikilias. Striking: in the Evros border region in the Dadia National Park, according to the Minister for Citizen Protection, 15 fires were ignited at the same time.
In addition, the ongoing fires near Athens began just three days after those in the north-east of the country, which have been burning nature and villages for six days. There are currently fires on Euboea and in Laconia. According to the Minister for Citizen Protection, there have been 209 new fires in the past 48 hours alone. The authorities had warned of an extremely high risk of forest fires due to the heat and the forecast winds, but given the circumstances in Greece it appears that many fires were started on purpose.
In fact, in the past few days, numerous suspects have been arrested who are said to be negligently or intentionally responsible for a fire. The spokesman for the Greek fire brigade, Ioannis Artopoios, said in a press event on Wednesday evening that 140 people were arrested for arson – 23 of them are said to have acted with intent. Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adilini ordered an investigation to find evidence of organized arson.
Only last month there were violent forest fires in Greece. The situation was particularly dramatic near Volos and on the island of Rhodes, where 20,000 people were brought to safety. In July, 520,000 hectares of land burned. There were 21 arrests. As a result, the Greek government tightened the penalties for arsonists considerably. In the case of negligent serious arson, a fine of 30,000 euros is now threatened. In addition, the costs for the fire service can be charged. In the case of repeat offenders, the amount should double, and intentional arson could result in a prison sentence.
Extinguishing measures from the air can only be carried out in daylight. In order to prevent even worse things from happening in Parnitha, a fire-fighting squad tried to prevent the fire from spreading further on Thursday night. On this Thursday morning, nine arson attacks took place at the foot of the mountains. Citizen Protection Minister Kikilias was angry and announced that several suspects had been taken into custody. “What is happening here is not only unacceptable, it is obscene and criminal,” he said, warning: “You are committing a crime against our country. You will not go unpunished. We will find you and you will be brought to justice.” The investigators from the fire brigade, the police and the secret service would do everything they could to arrest the arsonists, according to official sources.
After all, this year’s forest fires in Greece have already claimed the lives of several dozen people. On Tuesday, the discovery of 18 bodies on the Greek side of the border river with Turkey caused horror. They had apparently stayed in the forest and had fallen victim to the flames. It is not yet known how many animals died. What is clear, however, is that by Wednesday huge areas of the country had been burned. It should be more than 1,200,000 hectares, as the Greek weather service Meteo wrote on Thursday with reference to data from the European Forest Fire Observatory. The value is three times as high as the average burned annually in Greece between 2006 and 2022.
Sources: Kathimerini, Meteo, Skai, Greek Fire Brigade, with dpa material
