Wildfire in northeastern Greece is the biggest the EU has ever recorded

After burning across vast tracts of land, the blaze in the Alexandroupolis and Evros regions was mainly concentrated deep in a forest near the border with Turkey on Tuesday.

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It's an area difficult to access for firefighters and other emergency workers. 

The blaze was blamed for ۲۰ of ۲۱ wildfire-related deaths in Greece last week, ۱۸ of them migrants. 

Six planes and four helicopters were assisting ۴۷۵ firefighters on the ground, backed by ۱۰۰ vehicles, the fire department said. Another ۲۶۰ firefighters and one helicopter were tackling flare-ups of another major fire burning for days in a forest on the southern slopes of Mount Parnitha, on the fringes of the Greek capital.

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The extent and destruction of the blaze prompted a coordinated response from the European Union. 

"The Commission at this moment is coordinating relief efforts on various fronts by the EU civil protection mechanism across Europe," said EU Spokesperson Balazs Ujvari. "So, most notably in Greece's Alexandroupolis region, we are facing the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU. In this context, we have mobilised ۱۲ aircraft from our RescEU fleet together with over ۴۰۰ firefighters and ۶۰ vehicles."

Authorities are investigating the causes of the fires, which over the past week have destroyed large tracts of forest, scorched homes and triggered the evacuation of thousands of people.

Firefighter helicopters drop water on a wildfire on Parnitha mountain, in Acharnes, suburb of northern Athens, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 23,

Thanassis Stavrakis/Copyright ۲۰۲۲ The AP.

"All rights reservedIn Athens, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired a government meeting on how to rehabilitate the burnt forests in Evros and Parnitha"All rights reserved

In Athens, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired a government meeting on how to rehabilitate the burnt forests in Evros and Parnitha. It decided to identify all burned areas for reforestation, take action to prevent flooding later in the year and provide access to food and water for the area's surviving wildlife.

With firefighting forces stretched to the limit, Greece has called for help from other European countries, receiving ۱۲ aircraft and hundreds of firefighters from across the continent.

France and Spain were sending additional aircraft to join those already sent from Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Cyprus and the Czech Republic under the EU’s emergency response mechanism.

More than ۳۵۰ firefighters have also been sent to Greece from Romania, France, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Albania, Slovakia and Serbia.

The top EU official for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, said Tuesday it was the bloc's largest aerial firefighting operation and “underscores our commitment to swift and effective collective action in times of crisis.”

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The Alexandroupolis and Evros wildfire, which broke out on the 19th of August has scorched more than 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of land, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service. Copernicus is the EU space program’s Earth observation component and uses satellite imagery to provide mapping data.

The European Commission described it Tuesday as the largest single blaze recorded in the bloc since the European Forest Fire Information System began recording data in ۲۰۰۰.

Across Greece, firefighters were battling ۷۴ wildfires on Monday, with ۲۷ of them having broken out in the ۲۴ hours between Sunday evening and Monday evening, the fire department said.

Arson has been suspected in some of the blazes, with several people arrested.

Greece imposes wildfire prevention regulations, typically from the start of May to the end of October, limiting activities such as the burning of dried vegetation and the use of outdoor barbecues.

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As of Friday, fire department officials had arrested ۱۶۳ people on fire-related charges since the start of the fire prevention season, including ۱۱۸ for negligence and ۲۴ for deliberate arson, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said. Police made an additional ۱۸ arrests, he said.