The fire in Evros is the largest on record in the European Union.

A forest fire burning in the Evros region for the 11th day is “the largest fire ever recorded in the European Union”. A European Commission spokesman said today that the bloc is mobilizing nearly half of its firefighting air force to fight it.

Balaz Ojvari said 11 planes and helicopters from the EU fleet had been dispatched to help Greece fight the blaze north of Alexandroupolis, along with 407 firefighters.

The European Union’s Civil Protection Agency said the fire had already burned more than 810 square kilometres, an area larger than New York.

“This fire is the largest in the European Union since 2000, when the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) began recording data,” the agency said.

The fire is “still out of control” in Dadia National Park.

The EU currently enlists a fleet of 28 aircraft – 24 jets and four helicopters – purchased by member states to help fight fires in the bloc and adjacent territory. It is working to create an independent air wing of 12 aircraft funded by the European Union that will be ready by 2030.

The government disputes this data

These are sad numbers due to the scale of the disaster, despite the Ministry of Environment and Energy’s attempt – a few days ago – to question the data. “A true assessment of the extent of the negative environmental impacts of wildfires affecting our country can only be – and will be – done once they have been finally extinguished,” he characteristically noted at the time, attempting reparations and sophistry to “mitigate” the “impressions from the fire.” The deadly and uncontrolled fiery that consumed many regions of Greece this year.

On Monday it was the turn of Deputy Immigration Minister Sophia Voltepsi to try to refute the scientific evidence. Sophia Voltepsi went so far as to question meteorological data from the National Observatory, which recorded 52% fewer fires and a 195% increase in burned areas this year in Greece, after analyzing data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

The reaction of the National Observatory was immediate and sharp, stressing, among other things, that “it is the duty of science in general and national research centers in particular, to inform society and the state of the results of their scientific activities as well as about the natural conditions that affect the lives of citizens.”

Anxiety about an imminent change in wind direction

In Evros, the fires continue for the 11th day in a row, and the regions of Lefkimi, Leptokaria and Tres Vrieses are witnessing, and in the Rhodopes in the regions of Kasetera and Kirki, clashes with the firefighting forces, as the firefighting forces threw all their forces. there.

Meanwhile, weather forecasts for a change in the direction of winds to the south increase fears of worsening conditions with unknown results in the region.

In all, 474 firefighters, 100 vehicles and 16 groups of hikers are now working in the area, and tomorrow the international force is expected to be reinforced with the addition of French and Spanish firefighters.