Greek wildfire near Athens enters fourth day as water bombers deploy and death toll reaches five

Firefighting efforts intensify

Hundreds of Greek firefighters battled a wildfire northwest of Athens for a fourth day on Monday after strong and erratic winds helped it devastate homes, pine forests and thousands of hectares of farmland. More than 400 firefighters and 21 aircraft were deployed near the communities of Kandili and Agia Skepi, with heavy machinery carving fire breaks to prevent the flames reaching homes. A fire brigade official confirmed the deployment, while the firefighting press office noted that nine water bombers finally took off early Monday after winds that had reached 80 to 130 km/h over the weekend eased, joining nine helicopters and 450 firefighters on the ground.

Despite the improved conditions, the situation remained volatile. Panagiotis Margetis told public broadcaster Ertnews that while the wind had dropped in the region, gusts and currents created by rising hot air were still causing flare-ups at Kandili. He added that the fire was shifting constantly and moving toward the industrial zone of Megara, a city of more than 20,000 inhabitants, describing the situation as very dangerous. The firefighting press office confirmed Monday afternoon that the fire had intensified, though it tempered the assessment by noting that active hotspots made this normal.

Casualties and evacuations

Two crew members on a firefighting helicopter died on Sunday near the seaside community of Psatha, about 40 km from Athens, after a mid-air brush with a second helicopter whose two crew survived. Authorities are investigating the cause of the low-altitude crash. These deaths followed the killing of three firefighters in two separate incidents in Crete and on the Peloponnese on July 29, bringing the total death toll from the fires to five.

Around fifteen localities have been evacuated in total. The coastal resort of Porto Germeno, a popular summer destination for Athenians with second homes, was evacuated on Friday. Many houses there were destroyed. New evacuations were ordered Monday morning near the village of Kandili, 45 km west of Athens, according to the Greek civil protection agency. The fire risk remained classified as level 4 out of 5, very high, in the Attica region and nearby Boeotia.

Scale of destruction and climate context

More than 12,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land have burned in Greece in one week, according to the fire service. The blaze has destroyed mainly vegetation on mountain slopes, with very few homes burned so far, though olive groves and farmland have been heavily affected. Konstantinos Makrinoris, former mayor of Vilia near Porto Germeno, described the scene as a total disaster, saying the fire had travelled 45 km.

It is a total disaster, what has happened is unacceptable.

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after a period of record-breaking heatwaves and little rain, conditions that scientists say have been exacerbated by climate breakdown. France and Spain have been particularly hard hit, though blazes there abated over the weekend. In France, firefighters continued to contain flare-ups in the Var and Gironde departments, where 183 of 240 houses burned in Le Porge, the hardest-hit commune. Residents there were allowed to return Monday. In the Var, a fire that started Friday had covered around 1,850 hectares and was contained but not yet fixed, with authorities exercising extreme vigilance ahead of forecast wind gusts. England and Wales announced they had experienced their driest July on record.

Government response and future outlook

A government member stated Monday morning that Greece is fighting an unequal battle against the consequences of the climate crisis. Kostas Katsafados, deputy minister for civil protection and climate crisis, acknowledged on Ertnews that the fight against the fires is unequal. Greece has invested heavily in prevention and firefighting in recent years, with more systematic brush-clearing operations, drone surveillance, and a force of 18,000 firefighters, significantly more than in previous years, plus an operational fleet of around 80 aircraft. The country will be the first in Europe to receive seven new-generation Canadair aircraft starting in 2028.

I would say that this is without doubt one of the worst fire crises we have had to face in the last 8 to 10 years.

Théodore Giannaros, a researcher at the National Observatory of Athens, warned that temperatures expected to reach 37°C on Wednesday would dry out fuels even faster, making them more flammable than they were at the start of June. Two employees of an electricity company were arrested in connection with the forest fire that started in Porto Germeno on Friday, which is believed to have been caused by a spark from a power cable.