First Major Wildfire of the Season Rages on Crete, Greece

A major wildfire – the first of the summer season in Greece, rages on Saturday near Ierapetra, southern Crete.

Authorities have ordered the evacuation of several villages threatened by the flames aided by strong winds. Dozens of firefighters and fire-dousing helicopters are trying to control the spread of the wildfire.

A message has been sent via the emergency number 112 to the residents of Mavros Kolymbos, Achlia, Agia Fotia and Galini in order to move away from their village and head towards Koutsouras due to the ongoing forest fire.

ΙΕΡΑΠΕΤΡΑ:
ΚΑΙΝΕ ΤΟΝ
#ΜΑΥΡΟ_ΚΟΛΥΜΠΟ! ΕΦΤΑΣΕ ΣΤΑ ΣΠΙΤΙΑ Η #ΦΩΤΙΑ #Λασιθι #πυρκαγια

Απόφαση για εκκένωση και των οικισμών #Αγίου_Παντελεήμονα #Αχλιών

16 χλμ ανατολικά της #Ιεράπετρας, στην περιφέρεια του χωριού #Σκινοκάψαλα pic.twitter.com/FLtOElXSq0

— ariana (@ariana712251) April 6, 2024

Wildfires break earlier than expected as Greece records warm winter

Wildfires are already breaking out in Greece amid temperatures that reached 30 degrees Celsius in early April despite the fire season not being expected for another few weeks at least.

A 12th-century monastery near Athens played host to a firefighting drill on April 4th, wherein a wildfire simulation was created that trapped clergy and a group of people attending a baptism.

Volunteers and firefighters rapidly pulled the “victims” to safety through clouds of red smoke, as a drone whirring above sent live video of the rescue to a national coordination center.

“Due to climate, conditions have changed. Everything in nature is dry now and it’s very easy to catch fire. So we have to be ready to deal with it,” said Loukia Kefalogianni, the deputy regional government of the capital’s North Attica region.

Greece has experienced the warmest winter on record this year according to preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) analyzed by the scientific team of meteo.gr.

Specifically, the 2023-2024 winter, lasting from December 2023 to February 2024, in Greece was marked by extended periods of high temperatures, significantly surpassing seasonal norms.

Meteo reports that the winter of 2023-2024 was recorded as the warmest in Greek history, surpassing the winter of 2015-2016. The average maximum temperature in Greece during the winter period has risen by 1.8°C from 1960 to 2024.

Greece orders 7 firefighting aircraft from Canada

To better deal with the heightened risk of wildfires, Greece is fast-tracking a 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) scheme to upgrade its fleet of water tankers and produce an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect smoke in the early stages of a fire.

However, delivery of the new equipment won’t begin until next year, which leaves planners in a position of having to find alternatives to drive down response times.

Greece was once again at the center of Europe’s fire season during the summer last year. The nation experienced the most devastating wildfire in European Union records.

Fires destroyed an estimated 1,750 square kilometers (675 square miles) last year. Deliveries to the country of seven new Canadian-made DHC-515 firefighting aircraft, part of a wider European Union order by six member states, are set to begin in 2027.