Greece wildfires updates: 20 dead as fires burn out of control for fifth day in a row

Hannah Murdock
·2 min read
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A wildfire burns a house in Avantas village, near Alexandroupolis town, in the northeastern Evros region, Greece, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. Gale-force winds are fanning the flames of wildfires across Greece, including 53 new blazes that broke out early Monday amid hot, dry and windy weather that has sucked moisture from vegetation.

Massive wildfires are raging across Greece, causing mass evacuations and burning homes across the country.

Northwestern Turkey near the Greek border has also been affected by the fires while Spain’s Tenerife in the Canary Islands recovers from a wildfire that authorities believe was started deliberately by a tourist.

Here are the latest updates:

Wildfires burn out of control for fifth day in a row

Wednesday, Aug. 23

Firefighters across Greece are trying to put out wildfires that have burned out of control in the country for the fifth day in a row.

The largest fire is burning near the country’s northeast, near the city of Alexandroupolis. Meanwhile, another massive fire to the northwest of Athens on Wednesday was “torching homes and heading into Parnitha national park, one of the last green areas near the Greek capital,” ABC News reported.

On Wednesday morning, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias stated that over the course of 48 hours, there had been 209 wildfires across the country.

“Conditions remain difficult and in many cases extreme,” Ioannis Artopios, a fire department spokesman, said.

Wildfires leave at least 20 dead

Tuesday, Aug. 22

As a massive wildfire in northern Greece burns for the fourth day in a row, firefighters have found the burned bodies of 18 people, Greek authorities announced Tuesday.

The bodies were found in the Evros region in northeastern Greece near the city of Alexandroupolis. Authorities are investigating whether the people were migrants as they were found near the border of Turkey and Evros, an area known as a “crossing point for thousands of migrants seeking to enter Europe through Greece,” The New York Times reported.

No other details about the 18 dead have been released.

The wildfire near Alexandroupolis is one of dozens of major wildfires devastating Greece.

At least two other people have died and two firefighters were injured in different wildfires in northern and central Greece on Monday, according to The Associated Press.

The scope of the wildfires across the country is massive; the fires have burned over 21,000 acres in Greece as of Monday morning, according to Copernicus Emergency Management Service.

The deadly wildfires in Greece come as Hawaii reels from the Maui wildfire that left at least 114 people dead, with over 850 still missing.

This story will be updated.