Helicopters collide in Greece killing 2 as wildfires rage
Two firefighters died when two helicopters collided midair while battling a wildfire west of Athens on Sunday. Greece is fighting multiple blazes, forcing evacuations of thousands.
Greece faced a wave of wildfires on Sunday, but the day was marked by tragedy when two firefighting helicopters collided in midair west of Athens, killing two firefighters. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his deepest sorrow and pledged state support for those affected.
The victims were a Greek and a Danish national, while two others — a Greek and a British citizen — were recovered alive. Television footage showed one helicopter exploding and crashing to the ground in flames after the collision. Foreign firefighting teams and helicopter crews are commonly deployed in Greece to help combat wildfires.
Just days earlier, on Wednesday, three Greek firefighters died while battling blazes on the island of Crete and on the Peloponnese peninsula. By Sunday, flames were spreading rapidly through western Attica, the region that encompasses Athens, threatening communities and an industrial district near Megara, about 30 kilometers from the capital. A fire that had been burning since Friday around Porto Germeno, some 60 kilometers northwest of Athens, had subsided, but on Saturday it crossed a mountain to the south, pushed by winds reaching up to 130 kilometers per hour, and reached the settlement of Veniza. Initial estimates suggest around 200 houses have been destroyed in the area.
Nikos Lavranos, president of the firefighters’ federation, described the situation on state TV ERT as a “huge front” and a “black blanket” covering a vast area. Dozens of settlements have been evacuated, with firefighters focusing on preventing the flames from advancing toward Megara, a town of 30,000. The firefighting service said more than 2,500 people had been evacuated in western Attica by late Sunday afternoon. Megara Mayor Panagiotis Margetis told Open TV that there were uncontrolled fires in far too many areas, and that as soon as firefighters brought one under control, it flared up elsewhere.
Firefighters were also battling another blaze on the Peloponnese and on the island of Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea. Over 500 firefighters have been deployed across Greece. Wind speeds are expected to drop significantly on Monday, according to the National Meteorological Service, which should ease firefighting efforts.
Europe has been hit hard by wildfires this summer after months of record heat and little rain. Scientists have found that climate change greatly increased the likelihood of Western Europe’s record-breaking heat wave in late June as well as a spring drought, both of which made the land more fire-prone. In France and Spain, wildfires forced the evacuation of over 300,000 people last month. Mitsotakis said in a social media post that “the force of nature and the intensity of weather conditions exceed all human planning and every operational capability,” adding: “These are extremely difficult days for our country.”
