Evros fire is EU’s largest in decades

The Evros fire in northeastern Greece has destroyed at least 808.7 square kilometers, an area larger than New York City, which occupies 778.2 square kilometers, making it the largest blaze in the EU since 2000, according to data from Copernicus' Emergency Management Agency.

The fire originated near the city of Alexandroupoli and swiftly spread across the Evros area, killing at least 20 people last week in Europe's deadliest conflagration this summer, fueled by gale-force winds and high temperatures. It burnt vast swaths of greenery and devastated houses and livelihoods.

"The fire is now in remission," the mayor of Alexandroupoli, Ioannis Zaboukis, told Kathimerini. "Now the fire service is monitoring and intervening where there is rekindling, which is occurring exclusively in the forest of Dadia," he said, noting that the contribution of foreign firefighters "was...