More than 100 wildfires broke out across Greece on Tuesday, with the most severe blazes raging in Achaia, Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Chios. Authorities ordered evacuations of dozens of villages as intense drought and strong winds drove the flames.
Greece has requested assistance from the European Civil Protection Mechanism, seeking four firefighting aircraft. The largest fire erupted in Western Achaia near Flogeraika early in the morning, prompting gradual evacuations of all local settlements. Dimitris Alexopoulos, mayor of Western Achaia, said several homes were destroyed and a 40-year-old man from Moiraika village was hospitalised with burns.
Fire crews focused on protecting Patra’s industrial area and the Movri forest to the south, while major roads, including the Patra–Pyrgos highway, were closed. On Zakynthos, three separate fires burned near Koiliomeno, Keri, and Lithakia, destroying homes in Agalas village. Additional fires broke out in Vonitsa, northern Chios, and Gymnotopos in Preveza, where traffic on the Ionian Highway was halted for hours. Gale-force winds fanned the flames on Zakynthos and Kefalonia, forcing the evacuation of several villages and a hotel.
A wildfire in Achaia also forced residents of five villages near an industrial zone to flee, while 85 firefighters and 10 aircraft tried to stop a blaze from reaching houses near Vonitsa.
These Greek fires are part of a wider disaster gripping southern Europe, where at least four people have died as wildfires and extreme heat push temperatures above 40°C.
Across Spain, Portugal, Turkey and the Balkans, firefighters battled multiple fronts on Tuesday, with authorities issuing heat alerts in those countries and Italy. In Spain, a man died in a fire near Madrid while working at a horse stable, and another person, a 61-year-old Hungarian seasonal worker, is suspected to have died of heat-related causes in Catalonia.
In Albania, wildfires have destroyed swathes of forest and farmland, killing at least one man and forcing dozens of evacuations. Thirty separate fires continue to burn, with army helicopters and 80 soldiers deployed. Neighbouring Montenegro reported the death of a soldier and serious injury to another after their water tanker overturned while battling a blaze in the mountainous Kuci area.
Portugal’s north has seen more than 1,300 firefighters and 16 aircraft tackling three major fires, one of which in Vila Real has been burning for 10 days. “It’s been 10 days that our population is in panic, without knowing when the fire will knock on their door,” said local mayor Favaios.
In Turkey’s northwestern province of Canakkale, a large fire prompted the evacuation of hundreds of residents, while in southern Spain’s Tarifa, more than 2,000 people were evacuated from hillside homes as flames tore through eucalyptus and pine forests.
With dry conditions, high winds and relentless heat forecast to continue, authorities across the Mediterranean are warning that the battle against the flames is far from over — and the toll on communities, homes, and lives is mounting.
