Fires have ravaged Greek forests all summer due to a particularly scorching heat wave. According to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the burned areas “will exceed” 150,000 hectares, including part of the Dadia forest in northern Greece, affected by the biggest fires in the European Union. according to the European Commission.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis estimated on Thursday that the areas burned this summer by the forest fires that hit his country “will exceed” 150,000 hectares, a large part of which concerns the Dadia forest (north) where the fire has been burning for 13 days. The areas ravaged by the fires “will exceed 1,500,000,000 m²” (1,500 km², or 150,000 hectares, editor’s note), including the Dadia forest fire “qualified by the European Commission as the largest ever recorded in the EU, said the Prime Minister during a debate in Parliament on these devastating fires.
“An ecological disaster”
Criticized by left-wing opposition parties, the conservative Prime Minister again blamed the disaster on “extreme conditions of the climate crisis” and the long duration of the heat wave, which hit the country in July, followed by “winds dry and warm. The disaster has already caused the death last week of 20 people, mostly migrants, in the border department of Evros where the Dadia natural park is located, of which more than 81,000 hectares have been ravaged so far, according to the European Copernicus Observatory (EMS).
Protected by the European Natura 2000 network, the Dadia forest is known worldwide as a place of habitat or hibernation for raptors. According to experts, the fire has already caused “an ecological disaster” and economic in the department of Evros which marks the Greek-Turkish border and is one of the poorest in the country.