Eleven large-scale fires in the Attica Region from 2017 to the end of July 2023 have destroyed over 55,000 hectares (550,000 stremmas), the National Observatory of Athens/meteo.gr said on Monday after data provided by the European Union’s Copernicus mapping services and the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
Excluding the regions of Trizinia, the islands and the Athens Basin, the rest of Attica Region’s surface area totals 250,000 hectares (2.5 million stremmas), which leads to the conclusion that during the last seven years, 23% of the total area of Attica has been destroyed by forest fires.
The greatest damage was recorded in 2021 at Gerania mountains, Varibobi, Keratea, and Villia (a total of 25,850 hectares), following in 2023 by the fires in Kouvaras and Dervenochoria (15,610) as of the end of July, the fires at Mati and Kineta in 2018 (6,880), Glyfada and Penteli in 2022 (3,260), and the fire in Kalamos in 2017 (3,000).
This data is of great concern, the Observatory said, and requires a comprehensive strategy to fight forest fires that will incorporate state-of-the-art information from several sciences.
