With almost 90,000 hectares devastated, the mega-fire that continues this Tuesday out of control for the eleventh day in the Greek region of Evros is the largest ever recorded in the European Union and a natural disaster to which Brussels has responded with the largest aerial firefighting operation. community history.
The fire had destroyed an area larger than New York City as of Monday, as compared today by the Copernicus emergency management service, the European Union's Earth Observation Program.
Copernicus has described the Evros disaster, a region in northeastern Greece, bordering Turkey, as the "largest forest fire in the history of the EU" since this type of data began to be recorded in 2000.
The fire that began eleven days ago, and began in the surroundings of the coastal city of Alexandroupolis, spread rapidly fueled by strong winds and heat.
In total, so far in 2023, some 150,000 hectares have already burned in Greece, more than 1.1% of the country's total area, in the second worst year since 2007 in terms of calcined territory.
The Dadia National Park has been greatly affected by this fire, to the point that it may "never be seen as it was known again", according to Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos, a professor at the Faculty of Forestry and Environment of The University of Thessaloniki.
"We will not be able to have the Dadia ecosystem again. We cannot include this specific ecosystem in the more general losses of 150,000 hectares of burned forest land. It is something unique," he added in statements to the APE-MPE agency.
In response to this mega-fire, the European Commission has launched what it describes as "the largest aerial firefighting operation in the European Union to date."
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism has deployed eleven planes in Greece, two of them from Spain, a helicopter, 62 vehicles and 407 firefighters from ten EU countries and Serbia, as announced on the social network X (formerly Twitter) Janez Lenarčič , the European Commissioner for Crisis Management.
The Evros fire is the most serious of those that are still active in the wave of fires that has affected Greece for more than ten days.
In fact, the fire brigade has reported that 44 forest fires have been declared throughout the country in the last 24 hours alone, most of which were immediately extinguished in their initial phase, reports the skai station.
As of tomorrow, Wednesday, the risk of fire remains high in many areas of Greece.
In the Dadia forest, Greek firefighters found the charred bodies of 18 people last week, possibly irregular migrants.
Another body, believed to also belong to an immigrant, was also found, while a Greek rancher died trying to rescue his animals from the flames.
In addition, a charred human skull was located last Saturday in the Parnitha area, north of Athens, another of the areas severely affected by the wave of fires in the country, and, although the Police opened an investigation, no more are known. data about it.
