Unprecedented fires in the last 40 years

One of the main holiday destinations for Romanians, Greece, has faced major challenges this year. The country faced in 2024 the "most difficult year from a climate point of view in the last 40 years'', a year during which vegetation fires destroyed 44,000 hectares, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in front of Parliament. "We expected a very difficult year from a climate point of view, it was objectively the most difficult in the last 40 years, according to the data of all scientists, including those from the Greek National Observatory,'' Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared on the occasion of a debate on the subject. The prime minister cited "constantly above-average temperatures," "prolonged drought," and "violent winds" as "consequences of climate change that we must now deal with." In 2024, the number of forest fires rose to 9,101 compared to 7,163 the previous year, he said. Located in the Mediterranean basin, Greece, considered by scientists to be a "hotspot" for climate change, is routinely hit by heat waves and forest fires every summer. But the phenomenon has intensified in recent years. The forest fires began earlier this year with a fire that broke out at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters in the Pieria mountain (north) at the end of March, active for several days before being brought under control. Greece has experienced its "warmest winter on record," according to the National Observatory in Athens, followed by an early heat wave that began in June and record temperatures in June and July. Numerous fires have been recorded across the country, and orange and red codes have been in force for several weeks. In mid-August, it took three days to bring under control a fire that broke out just 40 kilometers northeast of Athens and later spread to the outskirts of the capital, leading to one death and thousands of evacuations. At the end of September, 6,500 hectares of forest and farmland burned near the southern city of Corinth. In 2023, more than 20 people lost their lives in wildfires in Greece. A huge fire, which broke out in the Dadia National Park in the northeast, was considered the most destructive ever recorded in the European Union.