Fire in Greece is the biggest recorded in Europe in years – 08/25/2023 – World

The forest fire that a week ago caused death and destruction in Greece is the biggest recorded in Europe in years, according to a note released this Friday (25) by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, linked to the European Union.

The number of deaths due to fires in recent months has risen to 21. In recent days, the flames have regained strength due to strong winds and hot, dry weather. “Greece is going through the most difficult year in terms of weather conditions in the history of recording and collecting meteorological data,” said Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis.

According to him, firefighters are fighting against 517 fires that broke out last week. One of them, in the northeast, started on the 19th near the city of Alexandrópolis and has already burned 72,300 hectares, making it the biggest in Europe in years, according to Copernicus, which did not specify the date.

Millions of people have been impacted by extreme weather events and prolonged heat waves around the world in recent months. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has already stated that today it is unequivocal that part of these changes are caused by human action.

In Greece, although wildfires are common during summer in the Northern Hemisphere, officials say the destruction recorded this year is unprecedented. “It’s the combination of high temperatures, drought and wind that unfortunately creates the ideal conditions for wildfires with extreme behavior,” said Marinakis. “It’s been an extremely difficult summer.”

Thousands of people had to flee their homes across the country to escape the blaze, and patients at a hospital had to be taken onto a ferry earlier this week for safety reasons. As firefighters work to bring the blaze under control, authorities suspect some of the fires were set by criminal means, and three people have been arrested in recent days.

On Tuesday (22), 19 charred bodies, including children, were found in the region of Avantas, also in northeastern Greece and close to the border with Turkey, where a forest fire spread quickly. As there are no complaints of missing residents, authorities are investigating the possibility that the victims are migrants who entered the country illegally.

Eight bodies were huddled together in what appeared to be a “final embrace”, according to investigators. “They realized the end was coming,” coroner Pavlos Pavlidis said, adding that the bodies were charred beyond recognition. “It was a desperate attempt to protect itself.”

Other bodies were found under the wreckage of a shelter destroyed by the flames. The stricken region, Evros, is a popular route for crossing the eponymous river from Turkey into Greece.

Satellite images show the devastation caused along the route. Areas of forest were completely burned, and the vegetation often used by migrants to hide from the police turned into a trap.

In the early days of the fire, George Hatzigeorgiou, president of the Avantas community, said he saw three groups of migrants in the area. “There was a woman with a child. The fire was 100 meters away,” he said, adding that he honked his horn to warn of danger.

“I begged them, in English, to go to the village square. They said ‘police, police’. They were afraid of being arrested,” he said. “I told them it was better to go to the square and be arrested than to be burned alive.”

Of the 18,700 arrivals of migrants to Greece last year, a third entered the country by land, according to United Nations data. This year alone, nearly 4,000 have crossed Evros, according to police.

Hatzigeorgiou says he often finds bags and backpacks with Turkish lira or discarded medicine packets in the area. “We’ve been seeing these people for many years, almost daily.”

Human rights groups and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) accuse Greek authorities of mistreating irregular people at the border and sometimes pushing them back to Turkey, a practice that is illegal under the international right.

In a statement following the discovery of the bodies on Tuesday, Adriana Tidona, a migration researcher at Amnesty International, said authorities “have systematically responded with illegal forced returns at the border, denial of the right to seek asylum and violence”. , saying its migration policy is fair and protects the EU’s borders.

Meanwhile, fires were still burning in northeast Greece on Friday, and Hatzigeorgiou feared more bodies would be found in the forest. “For me, it’s almost certain [que corpos serão encontrados]”, he said.