Greece is counting the cost of a ferocious spate of wildfires that tore through homes and forests dried out by this summer’s record temperatures, as authorities gained the upper hand on some of the worst blazes.
The fires in Greece injured 74 people and killed three as parched conditions tested the ability of authorities to curb the flames, and were the worst recorded for the month of July since at least 2003, according to the European Union’s Copernicus satellite monitoring service.
Friday was the first day in which Greece was not in “a critical state of alert”, said minister of climate crisis and civil protection Vassilis Kikilias. “The climate crisis will not go away and we have to adjust our policies at all levels,” he warned.
An air force base on Greece’s eastern coast remained blocked off by a security perimeter after a wildfire caused its ammunition depots to explode late on Thursday, smashing windows in a nearby town and forcing the evacuation of 2,000 people.
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Residents fled their homes and were evacuated by boat as shock waves rippled through the area and churches rang their bells in warning, while fighter jets flew to another base.
Amid the crisis, minister for civilian protection Notis Mitarakis announced his resignation for “personal reasons”, following reports by Greek media that he had been absent from his office.
It came as the funeral took place in Crete of 34-year-old Christos Moulas, one of two pilots who were killed in a crash as they doused a wildfire with water from a Canadair firefighting plane.
Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou paid her respects to the pilot’s pregnant widow at the funeral and the Athens parliament has promised to pay a stipend to the couple’s unborn child until the age of 25.
Some 667 fires broke out across a 10-day period as Greece experienced extreme temperatures, according to Mr Kikilias, who said most were started by humans and called for enhanced prevention measures.
Local media reported that a man was arrested for causing a wildfire through negligence in a rural area of southern Greece on Friday.
In Italy, wildfires have burned through 51,386 hectares so far this year, according to environmental group Legambiente, which called for tougher penalties for those who start the blazes.
The fires and record-breaking temperatures of this summer have caused concerns about potential impacts on the Greek economy if tourists switch to cooler destinations instead, with some businesses telling local media they had received a wave of cancellations.
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Wildfires are estimated to have scorched 10 per cent of the hard-hit island of Rhodes, causing the evacuation of 20,000 people, mostly tourists.
“The scorching heatwaves that are hitting the country threaten not only the present but, most importantly, the future of Greek tourism and, by extension, the Greek economy,” the editor of Greek daily Kathimerini’s English edition Tom Ellis wrote on Friday.
The country’s conservative prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, earlier this week said the country was “at war” with the fires and said a “change of culture and behaviour” was required to meet the challenges of the climate crisis.
Authorities warned that the risk of further fires had not yet passed, with the Civil Protection Ministry issuing an alert for a “very high risk” of fire in six of the country’s 13 regions for Saturday.
