Attica

I always had a ready excuse for not visiting the island of Kea, also known as Tzia, which lies a convenient one-hour ferry ride away from the coast of Lavrio in southeastern Attica: "It's so close; we'll go another time." Well, the years went by and that "other time" only came one weekend earlier this summer.

The permanent population of Greece, which reached 10.482 million in the recent census, is extremely unevenly distributed across the country. The two most populous Regional Units (RU), those of Thessaloniki and the Central Sector of Athens, host 2.09 million people (20.0% of the total population) while occupying only 2.8% of Greece’s area.

Tuesday's fires in Patra and Menidi, west Attica, started from uncleaned plots of land, fire service spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis stated to Kathimerini on Thursday.

According to Vathrakogiannis, in Patra, the fire started from an uncleaned plot at the edge of the city and then quickly spread, while in Menidi it started from the uncleaned yard of a factory.

More than 12,000 lightning strikes were recorded across the country by midday Thursday, according to the National Observatory of Athens' Zeus lightning detection network. Forecasts for bad weather with intense lightning activity had been made since the beginning of the week.

Water drainage from houses, traffic disruptions and even fires caused by lightning were some of the problems caused by the 48-hour bad weather that hit the country.The weather subsided late in the afternoon and today summer will return with temperatures rising up to 35 degrees Celsius and local rains and sporadic thunderstorms in the northern and eastern Aegean.

Authorities have detained four people in connection with a fire that broke out on Wednesday, shortly after 2 p.m., in the East Attica suburb of Glyka Nera, according to reports.

The mayor of Paiania, of which Glyka Nera is a part, Isidoros Madis, told Kathimerini that according to an eyewitness, the fire was likely caused by a drone that crashed into the foothills of Mount Ymittos.

A wildfire broke out Wednesday afternoon on Mount Ymittos, near Glyka Nera in East Attica. The blaze, burning near a residential area, has prompted a 112 emergency alert.

The fire department spokesman Vasilis Vathrokogiannis reported to Kathimerini that the fire started in a forested area on the northern side of Mount Ymittos and is moving toward the mountain.

Discover the charm of Athens by climbing its hills for coffee, brunch, desserts, ice cream, or simply to wander endlessly in this vast city.

"The difficult times are still ahead of us." wrote Mitsotakis, adding that "our effort is continuous. In this effort, our allies are new tools that build a new culture of prevention and responsibility."

He also highlighted the difficulty of dealing with the mountain Parnitha fire in Attica that broke out on Saturday afternoon. 

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is opening the debate on the execution of new major projects in Attica.