About 42% of the forests that until just ten years ago covered the Attica region, which includes and surrounds the Greek capital, have been destroyed by fire since then, data released Tuesday showed.
According to the National Observatory of Athens’ meteo.gr site, which quotes data from the European Union’s Copernicus and European Forest Fire Information System, 15 huge wildfires have burnt 80,000 hectares in Attica between 2017 and Monday.
The total area of the Attica administrative region is 250,000 hectares, which means just under one third have been burnt.
But when it comes to forest cover, more than 51,200 hectares have been lost out of a total 123,000 – some 42%. Just before the current summer fire season, which saw a major wildfire hit Porto Germeno, Psatha and their surroundings west of Athens, some 38% had been burnt.
Western Attica has been hardest hit over the past ten years.
