At least 21 people have died and 79 others have been arrested and charged with arson as wildfires continue through Greece, according to officials, as the ongoing fire now ranks as the largest ever in the European Union.
At least 21 people have died in wildfires across Greece.
The Hellenic Fire Service—Greece’s nationwide fire department—said Friday the death toll rose by one, after officials recovered a man’s body from the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park near the Turkish border on Thursday.
More than 73,000 hectares—an estimated 281 square miles—have been burned by wildfires in Greece, according to the European Commission, which noted the fires are “now the largest wildfires on record that the E.U. has faced.”
Greek Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias—who condemned those arrested as “arsonist scum”—said the Greek government has arrested 140 people with wildfire-related charges, including 79 charged with arson, according to the BBC.
The Greek Civil Protection Ministry noted a “very high risk” for fires in several areas throughout the weekend, including Attica, Evia, Skyros, Boeotia, Corinth, Rhodope, Evros and Samothrace.
Yannis Artiopios, a spokesperson for the Hellenic Fire Service, said a fire in Evros was “the most active part of all the fronts we are facing at the moment,” adding it was “perhaps the most difficult section that we will face today,” according to Agence France-Presse.
Artopios noted that a fire near Athens had been placed under control.
“Greece is experiencing the most difficult year in terms of climate conditions since the start of the collection of meteorological data,” Pavlos Marinakis, a Greek government spokesperson, said.
- That’s how many wildfires the Hellenic Fire Service has battled over the last week.
Greece previously faced a string of fires in July. Those fires were already significantly worse than what Greece experiences annually by that point, according to the Guardian. The wildfires were caused by a combination of higher temperatures, increased drought and stronger winds throughout the summer, Marinakis said. Evacuation orders have been issued across the Greek islands of Evia, Rhodes and Corfu, which evacuated more than 2,000 people last weekend, according to the New York Times. The Greek wildfires have since spread to neighboring Turkey, which reportedly evacuated 1,200 amid wildfires in the city of Çanakkale.
Greek Wildfires: More Than 200 Fires Blazing As Devastation Spreads To Turkey (Forbes)
18 Burned Bodies Found In Greece Amid Raging Wildfires (Forbes)