The fire that has been ravaging the protected forest of Dadia, a national park in the European Natura 2000 network in north-eastern Greece known for being an important habitat for birds of prey, for more than a week is still “out of control”. firefighters said on Monday.
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“The fire is still out of control (…). “Nearly 500 firefighters, supported by 100 vehicles, seven airplanes and three helicopters, are fighting the blaze,” a spokesman for the fire department told AFP.
Declared on August 19, this fire, whose front now covers almost 10 km, is raging in the Evros region on the border with Turkey, near the port city of Alexandroupoli. According to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, twenty people were found dead north of that city last week, including “at least 18 migrants”.
On Sunday, the European Copernicus Observatory (EMS) estimated on X (formerly Twitter) that the fire had already devastated “77,000 hectares”.
In the last few days, the Greek Civil Protection has ordered some villages in the area to be evacuated.
Three ministers, including Citizen Protection Yannis Oikonomou and Agricultural Development Lefteris Avgenakis, traveled to Alexandroupoli, the capital of Evros, on Monday to assess the damage.
“The ecological destruction will be incalculable after this fire,” Panagiotis Kalakikos, mayor of the small town of Soufli, told AFP last week.
The Dadia Forest is vital to the local economy as it supports logging, beekeeping and tourism activities.
According to experts, the vegetation in this region is so dense that the flames are often not visible and the water thrown by the firefighters often does not reach the fire pits burning on the ground.
In addition, in northern Athens, the forest fire affecting Mount Parnes, one of the capital’s green lungs, “continues to burn for the sixth straight day on Monday,” according to the fire service, indicating that “270”. There, firefighters, a water bomber and a helicopter are fighting the flames.”
“The risk remains high and the fire department therefore remains on alert,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said at his press conference on Monday.
Greece has been hit by numerous fires this summer, which the government blames on climate change.
“It is the most difficult summer in terms of climate, which makes the work of the authorities (…) significantly more difficult,” emphasized Pavlos Marinakis.
According to estimates by the Greek National Observatory, more than 120,000 hectares have been burned across the country – three times the annual average since 2006, as the EMS determined.