Most of the southern island of Crete, as well as Rhodes, faces a maximum risk of wildfire Friday, authorities said, while nearly the entire remaining Aegean Sea archipelago and all the Ionian islands are at a very high risk.
The greater part of Greece, with the exception of the mountainous Arcadia region in the Peloponnese, a wedge driving south from western Macedonia into central Greece, and parts of eastern Macedonia which are on category 2, faces a category-3 risk on the country’s 5-notch scale.
Central and eastern Crete are on category 5, while the Cyclades, the eastern Aegean islands and western Crete as well as the Ionian islands are on category 4.
Firefighters, the military and local authorities have been placed on high alert.
Officials have warned that strong winds will exacerbate conditions in the coming days, raising the likelihood that any wildfire spreads fast through countryside left tinder-dry by months of drought and high temperatures.
