For more than ten days, the region of Alexandroupoli, in northern Greece, has been facing a fire, which has already devastated more than 80,000 hectares of vegetation. More than 400 firefighters are currently mobilized on site. About this fire, a spokesperson for the European Commission referred to the “ largest fire ever recorded in the European Union “. For its part, the Greek government announced a series of measures on Tuesday, including compensation and flood control work that the various fires this summer are likely to favor.
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With our correspondent in Athens, Joel Bronner
Not yet under control, the fire which rages in the north of Greece, in the Evros region, near the land border with Turkey, started on 19 August. According to Copernicus, a European Union space program, this particular fire destroyed an area of vegetation larger than the size of New York City.
Fanned by the wind and the heat, this fire which started not far from the city of Alexandroupoli – and which the firefighters attributed to lightning – then quickly spread through the region of Evros, in particular the Dadia Forest, a national park known to be home to many birds of prey, including vultures, and which belongs to the European Natura 2000 network.
After a meeting of the Greek government on Tuesday, the Minister of the Environment, Theodoros Skylakakis, notably assured that the vast areas burned near Athens and Alexandroupoli should be reforested.
” As in the case of previous fires, we are now initiating control procedures in the burnt areas concerning erosion and the risk of flooding. In other words, we’re going to put up dams and do other types of technical work, that’s the priority. »
For the more than 400 firefighters still working in the Evros region, the priority remains to put out the flames.