By Vinícius Mendonça/Ibama-Wikipedia
A rapidly advancing wildfire has devastated forested areas and holiday homes along a stretch of Greece’s coastline, just 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital, Athens.
On Thursday, authorities said that more than 100 firefighters, assisted by nearly two dozen aircraft, were battling the blaze that spread swiftly through the coastal region of Palaia Fokaia. Strong winds fanned the flames as temperatures soared to nearly 40°C (104°F), marking the onset of Greece’s first heatwave this summer. Fire department spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis reported that police had evacuated 40 people, with evacuation orders issued for five separate zones. He added that a seaside road cutting through the fire zone had been closed off as a precautionary measure.
The coastguard announced that two patrol boats and nine privately-owned vessels were stationed off the Palaia Fokaia coast, prepared to carry out sea evacuations if needed.
“We’re urging residents to evacuate their homes,” town councillor Apostolos Papadakis told state broadcaster ERT.
While the precise cause of the fire remains undetermined, a specialist arson investigation unit has been dispatched to the scene, according to the fire department. Local mayor Dimitris Loukas told ERT that several homes may have already been damaged in the blaze.
Authorities have placed the wider Athens metropolitan area and multiple Aegean islands at Level 4 — the second-highest rating on Greece’s five-level wildfire risk scale — as extreme weather conditions persist. The current heatwave is expected to continue through the weekend. Earlier this week, a major fire on the eastern Aegean island of Chios required a four-day effort involving hundreds of firefighters before it was brought under control. That fire led to a declared state of emergency and triggered over a dozen evacuations.
In connection with the Chios fire, the fire department confirmed that one woman has been arrested on suspicion of having helped ignite the blaze.
Greece has invested hundreds of millions of euros in recent years to compensate households and farmers for losses tied to climate-related disasters and to upgrade its firefighting capacity. The country has boosted its firefighting workforce to a record 18,000 personnel this year.
Experts warn that human-driven climate change is intensifying extreme weather globally, extending the duration and reach of heatwaves for billions of people worldwide.
