In the‘Greek island of Crete are underway fires Out of control for several days: the first bonfires broke out on Wednesday 2 July 2025 in the village of Achlia, about 12 km from the city of Ieraperin the east of the island. At that point, i strong winds They pushed the flames more than 6 km away to the villages of Agia Photia, Galini, Fermo and Koutsounari, and then divided into three different bonfires without control that also reached the South of Crete.
On the site they immediately intervened 155 Fire Brigadeassisted by 47 self -pity e 7 helicopters used to tame the flames from above. After the local authorities have declared it state of emergency In the Ieraper area, the Athens government has sent further reinforcements, with a total deployment of 230 firefighters, 10 helicopters and several drones.
About 5,000 people have been evacuated, including thousands of tourists: Crete, in fact, is the island Greater in Greece And in this period of the year it is a very destination attended for summer holidays.
According to the surveys made by Copernicus, the flames would have involved more than 140 hectaresthreatening in particular the plantations of olive trees, Even if the damage caused by the bonfires have not yet been quantified by the authorities.
The main problem is represented by strong wind: According to the information provided by the firefighters, the gusts of wind passed the 43 knots (about 80 km/h), reaching the level 9 in the Beaufort scalewhich measures the strength of the wind on a scale from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane).
All this, united all‘aridity of the earth (caused by high temperatures of the last days) and the dense smoke caused by the flames, has created the ideal conditions for the propagate the flamessignificantly reducing visibility and hindering the intervention of emergency vehicles. At the moment, the situation is gradually returning under controlalso thanks to a less strength of the windswhich went down to 16 km/h (about 8.6 knots).
The bonfires also caused several blackout and difficulty in communications: for Greece, among other things, the season fires it began in a particularly aggressive way, with theChios island which was hit by violent bonfires in recent weeks. Al 1 July 2025 they are already burned beyond 7,200 hectares In total, a record in the country since 2006, with the average in the period 2006-2024 which, on the same date, is around 3,221 hectares. To deal with the emergency, the Athens government has already taken on a number Fire Brigade record: About 18,000 firefighters will be unfolded to cover the entire season of fires throughout Greece.
In Europe, however, there is not only Greece to burn: even in Italy different have broken out Fires along the whole peninsulafrom Rome to Sardinia, with record of numbers of bonfire and Burn hectares According to Copernicus surveys. One of the reasons is to be traced back to the intense heat wave caused byAfrican anticyclone.
