With more than 730 square kilometers burned, the Alexandroupolis fire is the largest on record in the European Union. It has been active for six consecutive days and has forced the evacuation of several towns.
Greek firefighters were still struggling on Thursday to control several massive forest fires raging in the country’s northeast, including one that was once considered the biggest on record in the European Union (EU).
The forest fire in the Alexandroupolis region, burning for the sixth consecutive day, combined with smaller fires, consuming houses and large tracts of forest and forcing the evacuation of several towns and the hospital in the area.
With more than 730 square kilometers burned, the Alexandroupolis fire is the largest recorded in the EU, according to the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, in a statement. message posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “We must continue to strengthen national and collective prevention and preparedness efforts in the face of more brutal fire seasons,” said the commissioner.
???? With more than 73,000 hectares burned, the fires in #alexandropolis???????????? now they are the biggest #forest fires there is evidence that the EU has clashed.
We must continue to strengthen national and collective efforts to prevent and prepare for more brutal fire seasons.#climate crisis pic.twitter.com/v6cy68Rnpi
– Janez Lenarcic (@JanezLenarcic) August 24, 2023
In the past week, fires have killed at least 20 people in Greece, including 18 migrants who crossed the nearby border with Turkey, two of them 10 and 15-year-olds. Greek firefighters are still dealing with dozens of other fires, including a massive fire on the outskirts of Athens that burned houses and encroached on one of the last green areas near the Greek capital, the national park on Mount Parnitha.
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TO Greece suffers devastating forest fires every summer. In 2018, a fire killed 104 people on the outskirts of Athens, during which tourists were not told to leave the fire. complex vacation. In the summer of 2007, several forest fires, which mainly affected the southern region of the Peloponnese, killed more than 70 people and burned some 2,700 square kilometers. Last month, a huge forest fire on the tourist island of Rhodes forced some 20,000 tourists to leave the island.
The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, acknowledged that Some of the fires around Athens have a criminal hand. “Some arsonists are starting fires, endangering forests, property and, above all, human lives,” the Greek minister said in a statement broadcast on television.
With firefighting forces stretched thin, Greece turned to other European countries for help. In total, in recent days, the EU has made available to the Greek authorities seven planes, one helicopter, 114 firefighters and 19 vehicles to support the fight against forest fires. For this new wave of fires, the second in a month, the European Union Satellite mapping of Copernicuswhich has already reproduced maps of the affected areas.
So far, Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania, France, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Albania and Slovakia have provided operational means and resources to help fight the flames.
Source: Observadora
