Fires – More than 100Κ hectares of ash in two weeks in Greece

More than 100,000 hectares were burned in two weeks in Greece, a record number for the country after the deadly wildfires of 2007, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) which was updated today.

From July 29 to August 12, 100,874 hectares were burned in Greece, according to calculations made by the French Agency based on EFFIS data.

During the same period from 2008 to 2020, an average of about 2750 hectares were burned.

“The fires that are raging right now are very devastating and have a very unusual level of intensity,” Mark Parrington, a scientist at Copernicus, EFFIS ‘European Climate Change Agency, told AFP on Wednesday.

As of August 12, nearly 114,300 acres had been burned since the beginning of 2021, of which more than 90% in the last two weeks, compared to an average of 9,600 for the period from 2008 to 2020, according to the latest EFFIS data.

Evia is the area that has been hardest hit by this disaster, as there are more than half of the burned areas.

“Our data show that we have seen such intense fires since August 2007,” added Mark Parrington.

More than 250,000 acres of forest, olive groves and pines were burned in August 2007 in fierce fires that claimed the lives of 77 people.