Dozens of Wildfires Burn in Greece and Turkey as Temperatures Soar

New York Times

27-07-2025

Wildfires are burning across Greece and Turkey, as southern Europe confronts a series of heat waves that have scorched parts of the continent this summer.
In Greece, thousands of people were forced to evacuate from their homes over the weekend, including from a village near Athens. Officials said on Sunday that the fire had been contained but warned that swirling embers threatened to rekindle the blaze.
Temperatures have soared, reaching close to 111 degrees Fahrenheit, or 44 degrees Celsius, on parts of the Greek mainland on Saturday before cooling slightly on Sunday.
The fire service would not have been able to cope if 'there had been another two or three fires like the one near Athens,' Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis, Greece's fire service spokesman, said in an interview.
Firefighters were still battling to control major blazes on Kythira, an island popular with tourists, and Messinia, on the Peloponnese peninsula, Mr. Vathrakoyiannis said.
In Turkey, firefighters were fighting 84 blazes on Saturday, Ibrahim Yumakli, the agriculture and forestry minister, told reporters, adding that the country would be on high alert until October. 'We are going through risky days,' he said, as he called on people in the country to work to prevent fires from starting.
Extreme heat has gripped much of Europe this summer, breaking records, stalling city life and endangering residents. Temperatures have hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) in several areas, and reached above 110 in countries, including Portugal, Spain and Greece.
Greece faces a challenge as it tries to preserve its image as an idyllic tourist destination while also facing the growing threat of wildfires. Authorities say there has been an uptick in both the number and the intensity of blazes in recent years, which many experts attribute to climate change. Earlier this month, a blaze forced 1,500 people to evacuate from homes and hotels on the popular tourist island of Crete.
'We must do all we can to restrict every possible risk,' Giannis Kefalogiannis, Greece's climate crisis and civil protection minister, said on Saturday. 'We have injured firefighters, human lives were put at risk, homes were burned and forestland destroyed.'
Mr. Kefalogiannis said the government had deployed a record number of firefighters to prepare for the fire season. This weekend alone, almost 500 firefighters have had to contend with five major blazes across the country.
On Kythira, the Coast Guard had to remove bathers from beaches on Saturday as the fire approached. In Messinia, heat and high winds were continuing to fuel the fire overnight.
Greek television coverage of the fire in Drosopigi, the village near Athens, showed residents fleeing by car and explosions at factories containing flammable materials. In the footage, two people on a roof used a water hose to beat back giant flames from a neighboring house.
The Greek climate crisis and civil protection ministry said that the wildfire threat would remain high into at least Monday.