Wildfire

A wildfire that started outside Athens and made its way to the city, burning some 10,000 hectares of forest and scrubland along the way, started from a wooden power grid pylon, an experts' report released earlier in December says.

About 9,500 forest fires, including one on the outskirts of Athens, consumed nearly 44,500 hectares of land this year, Greece's hottest and driest on record, an official said on Tuesday.

The massive wildfire in August in northeastern Attica that burned 10,500 hectares was caused by a short circuit in a power pole of grid operator DEDDHE, an investigation by fire service arson investigators has found.

Two innovative platforms, AtmoHub and ClimateHub, are set to transform how Greece monitors and responds to atmospheric and climate conditions. Developed by the Academy of Athens' Atmospheric Physics and Climatology Research Center (KEFAK) in partnership with NOA-ReACT at the National Observatory of Athens, the tools promise unprecedented precision in data collection and analysis.

The Ministry of Environment and Energy is advancing a reform aimed at protecting the country's forests from climate change, with 750 million euros in funding.

Special emphasis is placed on flood prevention in Thessaly and Attica. The interventions include forest engineering projects, anti-wildfire measures, management studies and mountain hydrology works.

Firefighting forces worked through the night to contain a wildfire that broke out Tuesday afternoon in Vouprasio, in the Achaia region of western Greece, aiming to prevent its spread to a nearby protected nature reserve. 

A fire broke out Tuesday on Serifos, near Vagia beach on the Cycladic island's southern coast, burning through low vegetation.

Emergency crews, assisted by a water-dropping aircraft, worked to contain the blaze, with additional reinforcements expected to arrive from Paros by boat.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday said that Greece managed to combat wildfires more effectively this summer, despite facing even more severe climate crisis-driven challenges.

A deputy mayor has been charged with a felony for his alleged role in a devastating wildfire in Xylokastro in southern Greece on September 29 that claimed two lives and scorched 7,100 hectares of forest.

The Fire Service has announced that 19 wildfires erupted in forests and farmland in the past 24 hours.

Of those, 15 were promptly put out and four are still live, the Fire Service said.