Wildfires in Greece: Blazes in front of the gates of Athens

Since early August, meteorologists in Greece have been warning residents about the risk of mega-fires in the Attica region — mostly in vain, it would appear.

A massive blaze has torn through the north of Athens since Sunday, torching forests, vacation homes, residential homes, schools, stadiums and factories. Two hospitals have been evacuated.

An increasing number of small towns are also being evacuated, including the historic town of Marathon. Mayor Stergios Tsirkas said the town was facing a "biblical catastrophe."

"Right now, it's difficult to estimate the expanse of the area affected," he told local media. "But initial calculations estimate that about 30% of the town has burned down."

Despite their best efforts, local firefighters have been unable to contain the blaze. Within 24 hours, the fire consumed some 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) of land.

In Patima Chalandriou, a town near Athens, a 60-year-old woman was found dead in a local craft shop. Other Athenian suburbs lost over 100 homes and businesses to the flames.

It's too soon to say how high the cost of this disaster will be, but without a doubt, it will be high. The fires have also been taking a toll on the health of Athens' residents.

The air in Greece's capital is still stifling, the heat unbearable, and the city's future looks bleak. Almost every year, wildfires burn down parts of the limited green spaces surrounding Athens, leaving them hardly any time to regenerate. Time and again, illegal buildings are erected on the newly scorched ground, only to later be legalized.

In addition to the annual wildfires, the climate crisis, which has been making the entire Mediterranean region ever hotter and drier, has also been making Athens increasingly unlivable.

"We are facing a new normal, consisting of extreme natural phenomena and alternating periods of rain and drought that we must overcome," said Efthymios Lekkas, an expert in natural disasters at the Kapodistrian University of Athens.

But the country does not seem prepared for this "new normal."

Failed preparation

For months, authorities had been expecting summer blazes. This year, the wildfire season started earlier than it did last year, with the first two large fires recorded this March.

One of them was in the Pierian mountain range near Mount Olympus in northern Greece. At the time, the government had promised to do everything it took to protect the country's forests that were at risk.

But Greek Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias didn't sign an agreement to establish fire safety zones in Attica's forest regions until mid-April. He said the goal was to "improve operational planning in this year's firefighting season" and strengthen preventative measures.

These past days have shown how unsuccessful that was.

In Attica, emergency workers immediately got to work to contain the fires but have yet to get the blaze under control. In part, this is due to the extreme drought in the region caused by overdue rains, coupled with a heatwave that has been ongoing since June. Strong winds have also been fanning the flames and helping the fires spread.

In addition, the fire department has been contending with a shortage of staff, difficult terrain, and narrow roads. Lekkas spoke of an "explosive cocktail" of factors creating a dangerous situation and leading to the loss of forests that are crucial to the environment.

'Forgotten and hopeless'

The firefighters in action have been trying to avert another tragedy, such as the 2018 deaths in the coastal town of Mati. At the time, in a holiday resort near Athens, 104 people died in July wildfires — 26 were found just meters away from the sea.

Now, firefighters are battling the flames with seawater wherever they can. In places where no seawater is available, they're letting the fires burn out, just like last year in the northeastern Evros region.

This year, flames engulfed the virgin forests of Mount Orvilos in the nearby Serres region for 27 consecutive days by Tuesday. Local mayor Giorgios Tatsios complained that there had been no firefighting operations in his town for six days.

Calling on the government to send a water-bomber plane for aerial firefighting support, he said, "We feel forgotten, helpless," and added that "it's unacceptable that there's been no support."

Skewed priorities

In doing so, Tatsios echoed what many mayors have been saying in private. While the central government has been requiring that local administrations establish fire safety zones, it does not want to bear any of the costs.

Overall, Greece's government still invests barely anything in forest fire prevention despite ongoing failures to contain the annual blazes and even though there is enough European funding available.

The Greek Institute for Alternative Policies (ENA), a think tank, estimates that by April 2024, Greece's government had only spent about 1% of the EU's recovery fund on fire control and protection.

That means that Greece's Ministry for Climate Crisis and Catastrophe Protection has so far failed to allocate investments in infrastructure, fieldwork, or the delivery of aircraft and land vehicles.

The only thing Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has personally seen to is ordering seven DHC-515 Firefighter aircraft from Canada. But it will still be a while before they're constructed and ready for their first mission.

Meanwhile, some neighbors and other EU members states are supplying firefighters and aircraft to Greece. France, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Cyprus immediately leaped into action, and even Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan offered his country's help. Any support in fighting Athens's fire is more than welcome.

Germany's Federal Foreign Office in Berlin has issued a warning about the wildfires in Greece, calling on German tourists to avoid affected areas and follow instructions by local authorities.

This article was translated from German.