A fire protection program budgeted at 1.76 billion euros will replace old water-dropping airplanes and allow the hire of of 3,000 permanent firefighters, Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis and Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias announced on Tuesday.
The repeated requests for the charges faced by fire brigade and civil protection officials over their management of the deadly fire in Mati in 2018 to be upgraded from misdemeanors to felonies have received a fresh boost with an Athens prosecutor’s call for audio recordings including threats by ex-fire chief Vassilis Mattheopoulos against investigator Dimitris Liotsios to be introduced in the court case.
![Burnt trees are seen after a massive wildfire in the Geraneia Mountains, near Loutraki in the northern Peloponnese, on May 21. It is an imperative that the penal code for forest fires be reviewed, the authors say. [EPA]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/fire_EPA-320x200.jpg)
As we have all ascertained, climate destabilization has led to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions worldwide.
![[File photo]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/messiniafire-320x200.jpg)
Α wildfire was raging on Wednesday in a forest area in Megara, west Attica, near a shooting range.
German nongovernmental organization Safers (Support Association for Fire and Rescue Services) has donated three fire engines to volunteer firefighters on the Greek islands of Kefalonia, Samos and Evia, all of which suffered from devastating fires in recent years.
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A fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon on the island of Aegina, near Athens. According to information shared by the Fire Department, the fire broke out in a wooded area on the western side of the island.
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Two separate wildfires were raging in the regions of Fthiotida, central Greece, and Corinthia, in the Peloponnese, on Friday afternoon, the fire department said.
![[Intime News]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/fire_brigade_intime-320x200.jpg)
A fire broke out on Thursday in a forested area of Keratea, a town in eastern Attica, the fire service said.
Thousands of wild animals have been left without food and water after a fire in a nature conservation area west of Athens, environmentalists say.
![[Intime News]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/fire_helicopter_web-320x200.jpg)
With summer fast approaching, civil protection authorities have drafted an emergency plan for 18 parts of Attica as well as 13 area in the wider region that are deemed high risk for fires and have inadequate escape routes.
The western Aegean island of Kea, better known as Tzia, has requested for reinforcements as a wildfire is burning across brush and grassland for a second day Tuesday.
![[Petros Giannakouris/AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/fire_Geraneia_mountains_Schinos_AP-320x200.jpg)
A wildfire that swept through a mountain range west of Athens and is currently in remission was the “most destructive fire of the decade,” in terms of burned forested area, according to the National Observatory of Athens on Monday.
![[File photo]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/fire_generic-320x200.jpg)
A wildfire broke out in a grassy area on the western coast of the Cycladic island of Kea on Monday. There were currently three firefighters in the area of Vroskopos with a water-carrying vehicle and two aircraft, assisted by volunteers. At the same time, 17 firefighters were mobilized and will go by boat from Lavrio […]
Satellite imagery from the Athens Oservatory shows that the big fire which broke out Wednesday night, west of Athens, had burned more than 7,000 hectares by Saturday.
![A firefighting airplane drops water near the village of Alepochori, in Greece, on Friday, May 21, 2021. [Petros Giannakouris/AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Alepohori_fire_corinthia_ap-320x200.jpg)
Two more settlements west of Megara, in west Attica, were ordered to evacuate on Friday as a wildfire that first broke out in neighboring Corinthia and spread eastwards burning houses and a thick forest continued to rage for a second day.
![[Petros Giannakouris/AP]](https://www.ekathimerini.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Fire-2-320x200.png)
The fire that broke out Wednesday night at the regional unit of Corinth and expanded over into western Attica, west of the capital Athens, will be contained by nightfall Friday, Stephanos Kolokouris, Chief of Greece’s Fire Service, said Friday.
