Greece is a small country located in Southeastern Europe. Greece is not just one piece of land, in fact it has many different islands branching throughout the Aegean and Ionian seas. Because of its plentiful history and beautiful location, Greece attracted nearly thirty two million tourists just this year! When people travel to Greece they are expecting to see historical architecture, beautiful beaches, and diverse cultural. They go to take a break from their lives back home, not fear it in a semi-unknown location. No one expects to wake up and the first thing they see be flames. Not only is it highly unexpected, but it also came out of nowhere. This has happened not only once, but twice. This will take you through the past, present, and future of Greece as it deals with these devastating wildfires.
Greece wasn’t always on fire. In fact it surprises many that Greece has wildfires considering its composed of many islands that are surrounded by water. Being surrounded by water, doesn’t prevent wildfires, but it does attract tourists. Despite all of the beautiful scenery and history, Greece is on the brink of bankruptcy. The only reason it hasn’t tipped over is because of its abundance of tourism. In fact, “tourism is the heavy industry that has helped keep catastrophe at bay”. The crazy thing is that during 2007 going into 2008, the number of tourists remained even at sixteen million tourists. What makes that stat so mind boggling is that “throughout the summer of 2007 Greece was ravaged” by some of the most horrific forest fires they had seen.
Some say that this was the “worst year on record” for forest fires regarding Greece. The weather in Greece is typically very warm and sunny. During this past summer, my best friend traveled to Greece and could not get enough of the clear and sunny skies. So it comes as no surprise that during the summer of 2007, the weather was extremely hot and dry. Aside from the extreme heat during that time the fierce winds aided in a “disastrous upsurge of forest fires and wildfires”. During this time, Greece requested immediate assistance a total of four times throughout the months of June, July, and August. The first call for help to the MIC was on June twenty seventh, and by then there were already a total of around one hundred and twenty fires throughout Greece. The fires were primarily affecting the people and families in the regions of Thessaly, Sterea, Attica, and the Peloponnesus. Following the first request, the second came on July fifth for the fires that were in the Parnitha and Pillion Mountains. Again following the second request to the MIC, the third one came on July eighteenth for fires burning in Korinthos, Patras, Mani, Kithira Island, and Kefalonia Island. After those first three requests, they had thought that they were in the clear, but what they didn’t know was that the worst was yet to come. Their fourth and final request, was the most traumatic one yet. Their fourth request was on August twenty fourth. There was reportedly one hundred and twenty four fires. The worst part was that during these one hundred and twenty four fires was that sixty four people had lost their lives. All along they assumed it was the weather that caused these fires, but eventually “Greek officials arrested a 26-year old farmer on suspicion of arson”. After these horrific three months, no one would’ve ever guessed that eleven years later they would be reliving their worst nightmares.
In July of 2018, the fires restarted their ravaging paths. The fire broke out in a myriad of areas, and because of this nearly two hundred people were injured by the flames. Later on Saturday, eighty six people were found dead while teams were looking for survivors. To escape the fire, floods of people jumped into the sea off the shores of Mati, Rafina, Neos Voutzas, and Kokkino Limanaki. Sunday morning came and the death toll had gone up to ninety one, and twenty five people were still reported as missing. On top of that, “more than one thousand homes and three hundred vehicles were either destroyed or damaged”. Many government officials stated that private detectives found clues that the fires were deliberately started, similar to the fires in 2007.
Throughout these eleven years the fires have been in the back of many people’s minds. They were two horrific events that have ravaged the country, but have also brought the country back together. Devastating events hurt while they’re happening, but it’s so much more rewarding when things begin to thrive again.