Hundreds of firefighters worked through Sunday to contain wildfires in Portugal and Greece. In Greece, authorities urged residents in parts of Thessaloniki to stay indoors because toxic smoke drifted from a wildfire engulfing a recycling plant. In Portugal’s V
The air outside Thessaloniki carried the wrong kind of quiet—one filled with toxic smoke—as Greece’s emergency crews fought a wildfire that had already swallowed a recycling plant on the outskirts of the city.
Residents in parts of Thessaloniki were told Sunday to remain indoors and shut windows and doors. The warning came after a fast-moving blaze broke out Saturday evening near the Oraiokastro suburb, triggering evacuation alerts for three suburbs and a facility housing 157 people with special needs.
Fire department officials said strong winds fed the flames. Around 160 firefighters were deployed to battle the fire through the night until water-dropping aircraft could take off at dawn.
Oraiokastro mayor Pandelis Tsakiris told Greece’s state broadcaster ERT that several businesses and homes were damaged. He said a clearer picture would come after authorities conduct a full evaluation.
In Portugal, firefighters were battling a different front of the same seasonal crisis. In the central Vouzela area, more than 1,200 firefighters backed by nearly 400 vehicles and 15 aircraft tried to stop a blaze that broke out Thursday, according to Portugal’s Civil Protection authority.
By Sunday, the wildfire had burned across 12,000 hectares—120 square kilometers, or 46 square miles—information from the European Union’s Copernicus satellite mapping agency showed.
Help arrived from abroad. The European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid said Spain sent 120 firefighters and 45 vehicles as reinforcements to Portugal on Friday. It also said three firefighting aircraft from Italy and Spain were dispatched to help.
Greek officials also moved quickly on accountability. The fire department said a 76-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of having started the blaze through negligence by generating sparks with his vehicle that set vegetation near the road alight. He was due to appear before a prosecutor Sunday.
The Greece fire came days after another wildfire in a nearby area killed a 12-year-old boy and his father.
Speaking on ERT television Sunday, fire department spokesman Brig. Ioannis Artopoios said about 85% of wildfires in Greece were caused by negligence—through sparks generated from agriculture machinery. discarded cigarettes. and the use of outdoor barbecues. “This means most of them could have been avoided,” he said.
Greece, like much of southern Europe, endures frequent wildfires during its hot, dry summers. In 2018, a blaze east of Athens killed more than 100 people. A massive fire in 2023 tore through a remote nature reserve in northeastern Greece and was the largest wildfire recorded in the European Union.
The country has increasingly turned to technology as wildfire risk grows. Greece is integrating an array of four satellites—launched into low orbit in May—to monitor for wildfires.
So far this summer, Greece has been spared the heatwaves that have scorched much of western Europe in recent weeks. Even so, officials say dozens of blazes have still broken out across the country, on both the mainland and the islands.
Portugal wildfire Greece wildfire Thessaloniki smoke recycling plant fire firefighters toxic smoke Oraiokastro Vouzela Copernicus Spain reinforcements Italy aircraft