26 June 2008 | Summer fires are already raging in Greece, with more expected to break out, while the country seems unprepared to fight them, national media reported today.

Most recently, a fire raged in the foot of the Hymettos Mountain east of Athens, leaving a part of it burned down and filling parts of the capital with thick smoke. According to the Ta Nea newspaper, this was a test for the state mechanism for the fight against fires, which failed completely.

The start of the fires this year brings to mind the extensive damage caused by forest fires last summer, which was the worst fire season recorded for more than half a century. Over 3,000 fires raged across the country between June and September of 2007. More than 80 people lost their lives and a total of 2,700 square kilometres of forests and farmland and around 2,000 buildings were destroyed.

According to recent publications in national media, Greece seems to have not learned a lesson from all this and is unprepared to deal with the fires expected to rage throughout the country this year. As BalkanTravellers.com reported in March, warnings of another nightmarish season of fires, caused by a drought and high temperatures, were issued as early as the spring.

Meanwhile, the Greek civil defence announced today that there was a very high risk of fires in Athens, the eastern part of Attica, Piraeus and Euboea, Greece’s second largest island after Crete.

Read more about Greece on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Greece