Greece has better performance in the prevention and early response to forest fires this year compared to previous years, according to the aggregated data of the European Copernicus service.

Despite the particularly high temperatures recorded in the summer and the arid, warm winter that preceded it, the total burned areas in Greece from the beginning of the year to August 25 stood at 326,840 hectares, 31% lower than the average for the corresponding period between 2006-2023, which the European agency uses as a benchmark.

Almost a third of this year’s burned areas is due to the devastating Penteli fire, which, despite a quick first attack, spread quickly.

The improved performance for the current year was achieved despite the fact that the large fires detected this year by the Copernicus system in our country, i.e. those that burned 300 hectares or more, amounted to 65, against an average of 41.2 for the first half of the previous 17 years.

The challenges of the fire season have, moreover, increased dramatically in recent years, as the warming caused by climate change contributes to the occurrence of dangerous megafires.

One of the characteristics of mega-fires is that they quickly grow in size and attain extremely high temperatures, because after periods of heat and drought the vegetation and soil have very low moisture levels, making them more vulnerable. At the same time, mega-fires often exceed even wide fire protection zones as their smears, i.e. the “burns” they emit, can create new foci in a radius of even hundreds of meters.

The high intensity of this year’s fires, and thus the degree of danger they represent, is betrayed by the level of carbon dioxide emissions they have caused, which is about 25% higher this year than in 2006-2013.

During this year’s fire season, some of the new civil protection tools were tested for the first time to detect outbreaks faster, primarily drones, new prevention policies such as the digital platform for declaring plots cleared of dry grasses and litter, while at the same time tried and tested successful practices were implemented , such as the systematic patrols of loaded aerial vehicles.

Government officials asked about the Copernicus data noted that the fire season is not yet over. They added, however, that the evidence so far shows that efforts made over the past five years to establish practices and acquire new instruments commensurate with the challenge of climate change are gradually yielding results.