The fires in northern Athens are largely under control, but on the island of Evia, people feel abandoned
The Tatoiou Street, which winds up the slopes of the Parnes massif from Varibobi in northern Athens, leads into a lunar landscape. Burned down forests on both sides of the path, as far as the view extends. Black tree skeletons soar into the sky, a gray ash carpet covers the ground. Again and again you see charred animal carcasses and burned-out car wrecks. The heat of the fire was so great that the alloy wheels of the cars melted and solidified into silver rivulets.
Except for a few nests of fire, the flames have been extinguished in the north of Athens. But smoke still rises from the cremated forests and the burned-out ruins. There is a pungent smell of fire in the air. The fire brigades have not moved out yet. Fire trucks are waiting in many places in case the fires should flare up again. A red Erickson fire-fighting helicopter circles over the fire area like a giant insect. The pilots keep an eye out for nests of fire that the wind could fan again at any time. Firefighters and the military patrol the ground.
Only a few green islands have remained where the fire has not raged. Some houses spared the flames entirely, others only slightly damaged. But of many buildings only the soot-blackened walls remain. On the outskirts of Ano Varibobi, a man pokes with a poker in the charred remains of his carpenter’s workshop. “Everything burned”, he says discouraged, “everything lost – in one night”.
The area at the southern foothills of the Parnes, one of the three “local mountains” of Athens, was densely forested. King George I bought a piece of land here in 1871, on which he built a summer residence. In the 20th century, more and more people from Athens settled there. They sought refuge from the summer heat in the woods. The names of the places tell of it: Polydendri, which means “many trees”, Drosopigi, the “refreshing spring”, or Drosia, the “coolness”. These place names sound like mockery now. The residents probably did not expect that they would be struck by fires here. Or they have suppressed the danger.
So far, one person has lost his life in the fire disasters: a 38-year-old volunteer was killed by a falling power pole near Athens. The fact that there were no more victims is mainly thanks to the Greek alarm system. You don’t rely on ancient sirens. Alarm messages are sent to mobile phones via SMS and with unmistakable acoustic signals. In this way, local people can be specifically warned of impending dangers and asked to evacuate.
While sirens often only cause panic, the Greek system gives people precise information about safe escape routes. The process was developed after the fire disaster in the Athens suburb of Mati, where over 100 people died three years ago.
Fires always flare up in the forest areas around Athens during hot summers. But the fires have never raged as devastating as they are now. 50,000 hectares have already been burned, according to Efthymios Lekkas, professor of geology and disaster management at the Kapodistrias University of Athens.
Other estimates are on the order of 60,000 hectares. According to a calculation by the European Forest Fire Information System EFFIS, almost twice as many forests had burned down in Greece by August 5 this year than the average between 2008 and 2020.
So far, there has only been speculation about the causes of the fires. Most fires are likely the result of carelessness. A 43-year-old was arrested in Kryoneri near Athens on suspicion of arson. In the suburb of Agios Stefanos, two arrested men were released because the suspicion of arson was not substantiated.
“August will be a month of nightmares,” warns the disaster expert Lekkas, especially because of the extreme temperatures of this summer. In many places, during the recent heat wave, floor temperatures of 65 degrees were measured, while the humidity fell to values of ten to 15 percent, reports Lekkas. That could lead to “explosive fires”. Even fire-fighting planes can do little against such large fires with temperatures of 600 degrees and more. Because of the large amount of smoke, pilots who have to fly by sight cannot push their planes deep enough over the fire fronts. Most of the water they throw off evaporates before it reaches the flames.
While the situation in Athens eased on Sunday, there was still no all-clear elsewhere in Greece. Two huge fronts of fire raged on the island of Evia. “Today is the worst day,” reported Giannis Kotzias, mayor of the small port town of Istiaia. “Where are the fire fighting planes?” Asked the politician in a telephone interview with the radio station “Skai” on Sunday.
39 villages in the north of Euboea have already been evacuated, and on Sunday people from three other villages had to leave their homes. Again, as in the previous days, thousands of people were taken in on the beaches by fishing boats, ferries and coast guard ships because there were no other escape routes. Mothers clutched their babies, young people helped the elderly and the infirm into the boats.
Fanis Spanos, the regional governor, speaks of an “incredible disaster”. The balance so far: “300 families have lost their houses and are homeless, thousands of buildings damaged”. Hundreds of homeless people slept on camp beds in sports halls in the island’s capital, Chalkida.
On the Peloponnese peninsula, the fires on Sunday were also not under control. Huge fire fronts ate their way from Olympia into the densely forested Arcadia. Big fires also raged south of the city of Megalopolis and in the Mani region. “70 percent of our region has been destroyed,” said the Vice Mayor of East Mani, Eleni Drakoulakou, “we are experiencing a biblical catastrophe”. Tourist locations or holiday islands have so far not been directly affected by the fires in Greece, but holiday homes, for example on the Peloponnese peninsula.
International aid has now started. Romania sent 112 firefighters and 23 fire engines to Greece over the weekend. They are supposed to relieve the Greek teams, who are at the end of their tether after a week of continuous use.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “France stands by Greece”. In a phone call with the Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, Macron announced the dispatch of three fire-fighting planes and 80 rescue workers. Three helicopters came from Switzerland. Cyprus, Israel, Sweden and Egypt also sent aid. More than a dozen countries are helping the Greeks, including the UK, Qatar, Kuwait and Ukraine.
Germany hesitated for a long time, even though Greece had asked the federal government for help. Political commentators in Athens saw this as a further indication of the poor state of German-Greek relations. Many people in Greece felt not only abandoned by the federal government in Berlin regarding the territorial claims of neighboring Turkey, but now also in the desperate fight against the fire. Only after the opposition parties FDP and Greens in the Bundestag criticized the fact that Germany, unlike numerous other countries, had not yet sent any aid, did the Federal Ministry of the Interior announce the dispatch of fire fighters and helpers from the technical relief organization on Saturday.
