Fire season in 2022 less damaging than last year

Fires this year had less of an impact compared to last year, which was marked by the catastrophic fire in northern Evia, according to official figures covering May 1 to October 31, presented on Friday by Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides.

The total area burned this year was just over 22,300 hectares. The most significant fires were in the forest of Dadia in northeastern Greece and Penteli in northern Attica, which was the most difficult to extinguish.

Stylianides said that in the period covering May 1 to October 31, the fire service was called to deal with 5,922 fires, with the total area burnt amounting to 22,321.7 hectares. The seven largest forest fires occurred in July, burning 13,865.2 acres (62% of this year’s total). 

Overall, the number of fires increased by 3.1% compared to the period 2007-2021. However, as is evident, the number of burnt areas was much lower (-52.4%).