Greek wildfires creep closer to Athens and suburbs count cost (2024)

Published

13 August 2024

Greece has seen summer wildfires before but this time the flames came perilously close to the capital.

At one point there were fears of a line of fires stretching for kilometres heading for Athens, whipped up by fierce winds and high temperatures.

Buildings and businesses have been left gutted by the flames in Vrilissia in the north-eastern suburbs, a mere 14km (eight miles) from the centre of the city.

The body of a 63-year-old woman was found in a burned-out factory in nearby Patima Halandriou, the first confirmed victim of this fire that has torn through 100,000 acres of land leaving dozens more people injured.

Colleagues said she had been too scared to jump from the building as the flames came close and was then trapped inside.

Suburbs including Nea Penteli, Vrilissia and Patima Halandriou are among the worst affected.

Even residents in areas of Athens that escaped the fire said on Tuesday they had found ash landing on their balconies.

The huge smoke cloud that for hours hung over Athens has now gone, although the sky is still hazy.

Firefighters say they are exhausted after days spent trying to stop the flames from encroaching further on the capital.

Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, praised the “superhuman effort” of some 700 firefighters backed by forest commando teams who had since Sunday afternoon fought the fire for 40 hours in north-eastern Attica.

“We faced a level-five fire risk with winds of 7-8 Beaufort [gale force], prolonged drought, and a rugged area with these characteristics - mountains, forests, and scattered homes,” he said.

Marina described how she had been forced to flee her own neighbourhood in Nea Penteli for a nearby town, only to be evacuated a second time as the flames reached there too.

"As we were leaving through the fire and the smoke and the rubble there were people begging us to take them with us," Marina remembered.

"But we were completely full and we had to refuse and see the agony in their faces. I called the police to alert them that there were people there that need someone to pick them up.”

Marble and stone merchant Thanassis Kevezes had to leave his business in Vrilissia on Monday as the smoke and flames took hold.

Returning to his yard the next morning he estimated that the fire had caused €30,000 (£25,000) in damage.

A major problem, he said, was the highly flammable pine trees that populated this area and much of Greece: “We love them as Greeks but at the same time I personally hate them now.”

In the suburbs of Vrilissia and Nea Penteli, and further to the north-east in Varnavas and the ancient town of Marathon, residents and business owners are counting the cost.

A pine forest burnt near Varnavas went up in flames and thousands of acres of farmland have been lost. Burning pine cones sent fizzing into the air made the task of fighting the fires that much harder.

Sotiris Evangelopoulos came to check the damage at his father-in-law’s house on the very north-eastern outskirts of Athens.

The property, thankfully, was fine but for some damage to the front yard.

Over his lifetime he has seen the summer temperatures soar higher and higher, and the season last even longer, while the winters have become warmer and shorter.

Mr Evangelopoulos criticises authorities for allowing the capital to expand further into the pine forests surrounding Athens, leaving people who live there more exposed to wildfires.

Kostas Lagouvardos, Research Director at the National Observatory of Athens, agrees that has complicated the situation.

“It’s very difficult to find a solution because you have an expansion of the city towards an area where you have trees and forests.

“On the other hand you have climatic conditions that change from one year to the other. We’ve had three summers which are very hot and very dry and you have very large fires, not only in Athens, but in many other areas in Greece.”

For now the firefighters are focusing on scattered hotspots rather than one major fire front.

A fresh evacuation order was issued on Tuesday for part of the seaside town of Nea Makri, and flames approached homes in the nearby town of Erythros. The strong winds of Sunday and Monday were not as fierce on Tuesday morning, but forecasters warned they would build up again during the afternoon.

Mr Lagouvardos believes policymakers and engineers need to work with national and local authorities to find a solution. But he is pessimistic for the future, and not just because of the increased risk of forest fires.

“You have implications for agriculture and health. You have a very long period of high temperatures in Athens this summer. You have many areas in the centre with high temperatures also at night which is a very bad problem for human health.”

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