Wildfire

Authorities across the country remain on alert after 71 wildfires were reported nationwide in the space of just 12 hours on Saturday.

The biggest of the fires, on Crete, forced dozens to flee their homes.

A man was being treated for burns and breathing problems in a hospital in Crete as a wildfire raged out of control in the eastern part o the island on Saturday.

With wildfires already breaking out in Greece, Derek Gatopoulos, a correspondent for the Associated Press who has been covering news in Greece for more than 25 years, joins Thanos Davelis to look at how Greece is looking to overhaul its wildfire response in preparation for this summer's wildfire season.

Firefighters are on their way to battle a wildfire near the Central Greece village of Kamena Vourla.

Local mayor Ilias Kyrmanidis said the fire broke out in two places in farmland at an altitude of 800 meters amid moderate winds.

"The fire is dangerously close to a nearby forest; swift action is imperative," he underlined.

In a drill at a 12th century monastery near Athens, a fast-approaching wildfire threatens to trap clergy and a group of people attending a baptism.

Volunteers and firefighters race to pull them to safety through clouds of red smoke, as a drone buzzing overhead sends live video of the rescue to a national coordination center.

When Rena Dourou, the former SYRIZA regional governor, remarked, "I had a stroke of bad luck on my watch," following the deadly wildfire in eastern Attica in 2018, it elicited public outrage for a simple reason: not because there can't be instances of "bad luck" during a term as governor, but because such occurrences are inherently part of the risks politicians undertake when assuming crucial p

Crews continued to battle a wildfire in the Pierian Mountains of the central Macedonia region for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday.

The firefighting operation comprises 36 fire engines manned by a crew of 150 members, along with nine teams of firefighters on foot, supplemented by two water-dropping helicopters.

A foreign national who was detained for the forest fire on Mount Ymittos, near Athens, has been returned to jail after his testimony.

The man was arrested on Saturday by the Fire Service's criminal unit on suspicion of arson near the Monastery of Agios Georgios Koutalas and led before a prosecutor.

His nationality was not disclosed.

Thousands of homeowners with properties near or inside forested/protected areas face hefty fines as of Monday if they have not complied with new fire protection measures.

Greece, France, and Montenegro have joined forces in a scientific program dubbed MediterRE3 that is aimed at adopting management practices to reduce the risk and extent of wildfires, as well as the resulting carbon emissions.