Fire Service

Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Aug. 7, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country's second-largest island, isolating its northern part. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as "a biblical catastrophe."

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Thousands of residents fled to safety from a wildfire that burned for a fourth day north of Athens early on Aug. 6, during an overnight battle to stop the flames from reaching populated areas, electricity installations and historic sites.

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An innovative system that can predict where a fire is expected to break out on Greek territory in the next 24 hours with a spatial analysis of up to 500 meters was created by researchers at the Beyond Earth Observation and Satellite Monitoring Center of the National Observatory of Athens.

Search and rescue crews located on Thursday the body of a pilot who went missing when his small trainer aircraft crashed on January 31 on the northeastern slopes of Mount Mitsikeli, about 38 kilometers from Ioannina.

The 32-year-old's body was found in a ravine at the top of the Mitsikeli mountain range in Ioannina, northwestern Greece.

Nikos Hardalias, the Deputy Minister in charge of Civil Protection and Crisis Management, has travelled to Thessaloniki to oversee preparations for the reopening of the city's Makedonia Airport.

Until the end of the year, a number of 14 emergency dispatches in the country would be fully integrated so that they include, together with the Fire Service and Ambulance, representatives of other services, such as the Police and the Gendarmerie, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, mentioned on Wednesday.

A Bulgarian climber fell to his death high on Mt. Olympus Saturday.

The man had fallen in a gully called "Louki tou Stefaniou" earlier Saturday.

He was retrieved by local firemen and the Fire Service's Special Squad, but did not survive.

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Many are attempting erroneously to compare the fire that broke out at dawn on Monday at the borders of Paiania at the edge of Mount Hymettus to the disastrous wildfire in Mati last year that claimed the lives of over 100 people.
Every such incident is distinct and occurs in different weather conditions.

A fire has broken out in the eastern Athens suburb of Peania and authorities have ordered an evacuation of houses.

The fire began inside a house, according to the Fire Service.

A total of 133 firefighters with 42 vehicles are fighting the fire.

A forest fire outside Athens is threatening homes on the anniversary of a deadly blaze in the same area that claimed more than 100 lives.