Greece heatwave 2024: New fire ‘every ten minutes’ amid hunt for arsonist

Greece is on the frontline in the world’s battle against climate change, being hit by extreme heat and flooding in the space of just a few weeks last year. It recorded its longest heatwave on record, lasting 16 days, in July 2023. The high temperatures fuelled wildfires across the country that saw locals and tourists evacuated.

The minister responsible for civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said the last week has posed a particular wildfire risk due to the combination of high temperatures and winds. “The early start of the heatwaves, combined with the dry winter, has led to a very difficult fire season,” he said.

A total of 44 agricultural fires were reported by the fire service last Thursday alone.

The worldwide heatwaves are occurring against a backdrop of 12 consecutive months that have ranked as the warmest on record in year-on-year comparisons, according to the European Union’s climate change monitoring service.

The World Meteorological Organization says there is an 86 per cent chance that one of the next five years will eclipse 2023 to become the warmest on record.

While overall global temperatures have risen by nearly 1.3 C (2.3 F) above pre-industrial levels, climate change is fuelling more extreme temperature peaks – making heatwaves more common, more intense and longer-lasting.

On average globally, a heatwave that would have occurred once in 10 years in the pre-industrial climate will now occur 2.8 times over 10 years, and it will be 1.2 C warmer, according to an international team of scientists with the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group.

Scientists say heatwaves will continue to intensify if the world continues to unleash climate-warming emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

If the world hits 2 C (3.6 F) of global warming, heatwaves would on average occur 5.6 times in 10 years and be 2.6 C (4.7 F) hotter, according to the WWA.

Radek Nowak, active product manager for Intrepid Travel – an agency that specialises in walking holidays, said they have had to adapt trips according to the heat: “The soaring summer temperatures in Europe are certainly making it more challenging for people to do more active holidays.”

Intrepid no longer runs hiking trips in Spain and Portugal during the hottest months of July and August. Winter trips have been added instead in countries such as Greece and Croatia.

Radek added: “When groups are doing walks or hikes in the warm weather, we plan our days around the weather, heading out early in the morning before the heat reaches its peak.”

Scores of Greek firefighters and water-bombing aircraft succeeded late Wednesday in taming a large wildfire on the fringes of Athens that forced authorities to evacuate two nearby settlements.

Summer wildfires also plagued Greece’s Mediterranean neighbor Turkey, where two villages were evacuated but no injuries were reported.

The Greek fire service said the blaze near Athens — one of dozens all over the country Wednesday — had been largely contained but firefighters would remain on alert all evening to stop it reviving.

Officials said the wildfire was exacerbated by windy, hot and dry weather and appeared to have been deliberately started.

It broke out in low scrub and olive trees in a sparsely inhabited area near Vari, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of central Athens.

Fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said winds at times reached gale force, while police were enlisted to remove some residents from their homes.

As well as record temperatures, Greece is expected to see record tourism this year. In a forecast published days before the heatwave, the National Bank of Greece said tourism is up 24 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period a year earlier. The analysts said a 20 per cent rise in international arrivals in spring suggests the country will face a longer season than expected.

It said the country needs to reduce rampant construction and protect water resources and coastal areas if it wants to maintain a healthy tourism industry across its mountainous mainland and beach-lined islands.

“Our country’s economy relies heavily on tourism which makes the need to manage it in a sustainable way even more urgent,” the report said.

Strong winds fanned the flames and forced residents in Koropi to flee their homes and businesses.

Traffic was suspended along a main highway connecting Koropi to Athens suburbs. One storage facility was on fire and flames crept into a boat dry dock and across fields of dry grass and olive trees, images on local TV showed.

Read the full article here from my colleague Rich Booth:

Two people have died from heatstroke in Cyprus, while others are fighting for their life in hospital, health officials have said.

On Friday, an elderly person died from heatstroke after the weeklong heatwave with reportedly record temperatures for the month of June, with temperatures in excess of 40C.

An 84-year-old woman died a day after her admission to a hospital on Friday, said State Health Services Organisation spokesman Charalambos Charilaou. He said another three elderly patients were in serious condition.

Concern has mounted among the Greek emergency services that foreign tourists are not being properly informed of the risks posed by hiking in such high temperatures.

“In all my years in the police service, overseeing such operations, I can’t remember anything like it,” said one commander on Syros.

“But we have to bear in mind that this has been the hottest June ever and all of these people decided to go out hiking. You can’t arrest someone for deciding to take a walk, and you can’t force them to stay indoors, you can only hope that while on holiday tourists will have their wits about them in such heat.”

Greek locals are reportedly growing frustrated with tourists “underestimating” the extreme heat as five holidaymakers are confirmed dead.

A documentary filmmaker living in Greece told the i that tourists in Athens don’t know the intensity of the heat and said she often sees tourists hiking in temperatures that locals wouldn’t do exercise in.

“There is a sense of frustration among locals [at British tourists] but also they feel very sorry, very sad. They do not want [tourists’ deaths] to happen – it is also bad for them as a tourist destination,” she said.