Greece declared a state of emergency on the Aegean island of Chios, after a wildfire broke out early 25 July, fanned by windy conditions.

Dozens of firefighters and aircraft were deployed to fight the forest fire, burning through olive groves and mastic trees, an important source of income for the island which has a population of about 52,000.

The huge wildfire on the island of Chios which has burned 3,500 hectares of forest and farm land, was eventually set under control.

Over 90 percent of the mastic trees at the villages of Lithi, Elata and Vessa were destroyed while a large number of mastic trees were burned at the villages of Mesta, Armolia and Pyrgi.

Smoke forced some people to flee their homes in two villages, but there has been no order to evacuate, the island’s mayor, Manolis Vournous, told state television.

The Northern Aegean regional governor also spoke to CNN Greece dubbing the scale of destruction “catastrophic”, scorching the rare mastic groves that only grow on Chios and nowhere else in the world.

This is the second time since 2012 that major fires destroyed large swaths of land on the island while in 2007 Greece saw the most serious wildfire outbreak in decades killing 70 people.