Greece blaze is ‘largest wildfire ever recorded in EU’
The fire that began near the city of Alexandroupolis quickly spread across the Evros region, killing at least 20 people. A forest blaze in Greece is the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU and the bloc is mobilising nearly half its firefighting air wing to tackle it, a European Commission spokesman said. Eleven aeroplanes and one helicopter from the EU fleet have been sent to help Greece counter the fire north of Alexandroupoli city, along with 407 firefighters, spokesman Balazs Ujvari said on Tuesday. The EUs civil protection service said the fire had burned more than 810 square kilometres (310 square miles) of land an area bigger than New York City. This wildfire is the largest in the EU since 2000, when the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) began recording data, the service said. Greeces fire service told the AFP news agency that the blaze was still out of control in the northeast regions Dadia National Park, a major sanctuary for birds of prey. Authorities feared more bodies would be found when the flames were put out, as Evros is a popular crossing into the EU for thousands of migrants and refugees each year. The EU currently calls on a fleet of 28 aircraft 24 water-dumping planes and four helicopters supplied by member countries to help battle blazes in the bloc and nearby neighbours. It is working on creating a standalone, EU-funded air wing of 12 aircraft that will be fully in place by 2030. We do know that fires are getting more severe, Ujvari noted. If you look at the figures every year in the past years, we are seeing trends which are not necessarily favourable, and that calls for, of course, more capacities at the member states level. Greece has been ravaged by numerous fires this summer which the government attributes to climate change. Greeces deadliest fire on record killed 104 people outside Athens in 2018. Firefighters find 18 burned bodies in Dadia Forest, suspected to be asylum seekers, as wildfires ravage northern Greece. Greek firefighters battle hundreds of blazes ravaging a country where wildfires have already killed 20 people this week. Blazes break out on the outskirts of the capital, forcing more evacuations.