Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis estimated on Thursday August 31 that the areas devastated this summer by the forest fires that hit his country “will exceed” 1,500 square kilometers. This notably includes a large part of it concerns the Dadia forest (in the north of the country), where the fire has been burning for thirteen days, a fire described by the European Commission as “the largest ever recorded in the EU”.
Criticized by left-wing opposition parties, the Conservative Prime Minister, speaking in a debate in Parliament, again blamed the disaster on “extreme conditions of the climate crisis” and the long duration of the heat wave, that hit the country in July, followed by “dry and hot winds”.
The disaster has already caused the death last week of twenty people, mostly migrants, in the border department of Evros where the Dadia natural park is located, of which more than 81,000 hectares have been ravaged so far, according to the European Copernicus Observatory.
Protected by the European Natura 2000 network, the Dadia forest is known worldwide as a place of habitat or hibernation for birds of prey. According to experts, the fire has already caused “an ecological disaster” and economic in the department of Evros which marks the Greek-Turkish border and is one of the poorest in the country.
