2025 wildfires: Eastern Macedonia and Thrace tops Greece’s fire list
The Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection has released data from Greece’s 2025 wildfire season, highlighting Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (EMT) as the region with the highest number of fires.
EMT recorded 907 fires, followed by Thessaly with 822. Within EMT, the municipalities of Kumçiftliği (Orestiada) and İnhanı (Topeiros) each reported 89 incidents. Most fires were agricultural or grassland blazes, small in size but frequent in recurrence.
National statistics show 80% of fires are contained before reaching 10 hectares, 97% under 100 hectares, and 84% extinguished within 2 hours and 18 minutes. The average response time is 14.8 minutes, with a first-response success rate of 96.6%.
The 2025 season also saw six days with the highest risk index (5), compared with a 2006–2024 average of 1.1, reflecting increased pressures from climate change. Despite this, the national firefighting system remained effective; emergency hotline 112 was activated in only 5.5% of cases.
Nine major fires (over 10,000 hectares) burned 249,000 hectares in total, significantly below the historical average of 64,000 hectares per fire. Peak fire activity occurred June through August, coinciding with high temperatures, low humidity, and agricultural activities such as harvesting and field clearing.
