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Greece · major fire event · burning since 31 July
The Boeotia fire: from Xironomi down to the Gulf of Corinth
What happened
A fire that started inland in Boeotia on the morning of Friday 31 July ran south through pine forest, over Mount Kithairon and down to the sea on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth. People were taken off the beach at Agios Vasileios by boat because the road out had gone, and a second group was lifted off the shore at Porto Germeno the next morning. Homes were lost at Porto Germeno and along that coast, and the fire was still running on separate fronts at Veniza and Psatha on 2 August.
What it means if you're travelling
This is a mainland fire about seventy to eighty kilometres north-west of Athens, not an island one. Athens and its airport were running normally throughout, and the coast in question is a small stretch of holiday villages that very few visitors pass through by accident. If you are booked at Porto Germeno, Psatha, Alepochori, Agios Vasileios or the Domvraina villages, do not travel there and speak to your host first. If you are driving between Athens and the Peloponnese, check your route on the morning rather than the night before.
In depth: the Boeotia fire and the coast north-west of Athens
Where exactly is this fire, and how far is Athens?
Boeotia is the province north-west of Athens, inland farming country behind Thebes. The fire began on the morning of Friday 31 July near Xironomi, in the agricultural land around Domvraina, and strong northerly wind pushed it south towards Kalamaki and Agios Vasileios. From there it climbed Mount Kithairon and came down the far side into thick pine forest on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth, crossing into western Attica. The places that took the damage are small coastal villages that Greeks use for weekends rather than package destinations: Agios Vasileios, roughly eighty kilometres north-west of Athens, and Porto Germeno, about seventy. Alepochori, Psatha, Livadostra and Veniza are on the same short stretch of shore. It matters that this is the mainland. The two have been reported together often enough that people arriving in Heraklion have worried about a fire they are two hundred sea miles from.
Why were people taken off the beach by boat?
This coast has one road along it and forest running right down to the water. When the front reached the shore on 31 July, the way out of Agios Vasileios was gone and several hundred residents and holidaymakers were left on the beach in heavy smoke. A fire service vessel, coast guard patrol boats and local private boats worked the bay in relays through the afternoon, held up by a rough sea and by how few people each boat could take. A group of mostly elderly evacuees stayed aboard a coast guard vessel for a time because there was nowhere safe to land them. Early on 1 August the coast guard lifted a further small group off the beach at Porto Germeno and landed them at Alepochori. It is worth understanding why that happened, because the same geography repeats all round the Greek coast. If the beach or cove you are staying at has a single road in, through forest, know where that road goes before there is any reason to use it.
Is Athens affected, and what about the drive to Corinth?
Athens itself was not affected. No disruption to the airport, the metro, the Acropolis or the city centre has been reported at any point in this event, and the fire ground is a range of hills away to the west. The western edge of the city is a different question. A separate fire at Aspropyrgos on 31 July closed the Aigaleo peripheral road in the direction of Attiki Odos, with police diverting traffic onto Athinon Avenue, and 112 messages went to the Afaia Chaidariou and Ano Dasos Chaidariou neighbourhoods. On 2 August, alerts went out for Kandili and Agia Skepi, near Megara, directing people towards Nea Peramos. Megara sits on the Athens to Corinth corridor, so that is the section to check on the day you drive. The motorway between Athens and Corinth has not been reported closed in this event. One warning: reports of that motorway and the Proastiakos line halting near Agioi Theodoroi are dated 1 June and are still surfacing high in search results. They are not from this week.
Which parts of Greece are running normally?
Most of it. The islands that carry the bulk of summer bookings, Rhodes, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Naxos and the rest, have had nothing to do with this. Crete and Paros are past the worst of their own fires. The evacuation alert on Andros was lifted on 30 July. A new fire started on Kefalonia overnight into 2 August, which is worth knowing if you are heading there, but no other Ionian island was involved. On the mainland, Thessaloniki, Meteora, Pelion and the whole north are unaffected. In the northern Peloponnese, Patras, Nafplio and the coast road were working, with hill villages above Aigio and farmland at Fichti beside Mycenae the exceptions. Fokida, on the north side of the Gulf further west, had its own fire from Skaloma on 1 August that put seven settlements under evacuation orders near Eupalio. A country the size of Greece running two or three serious fires is a bad week in a particular set of valleys, not a national shutdown.
What will this coast be like afterwards?
Worse for longer than the news cycle suggests. First estimates from the local authority on 1 August ran to well over a hundred homes damaged or destroyed around Porto Germeno, so rentals on that shore may simply not exist, and those that stand may be without power or water for a while. Ask your host for a photograph, not a reassurance. Access will stay controlled after the flames are out: Greek authorities routinely ban forest entry on burnt ground, and roads stay shut for tree clearance and for repairs to melted cable and damaged verges. Reignition on already-burnt ground is the standard pattern here, particularly in wind. The least obvious risk arrives later. Kithairon is steep and its pine cover is what held the soil; with that gone, the first heavy autumn rain will move mud and rock onto the roads below, and that hazard lasts into next year rather than next week. The government said on 5 August that anti-erosion and flood-prevention works on the burnt ground would start in the middle of September and be finished by the end of the year, which is a fair guide to when this coast stops being a building site. Police have also reported arson arrests across several regions this week, which is a reminder that fire danger ratings describe conditions, not intent.
The live picture
Live NASA VIIRS + MODIS detections, refreshed daily. The situation moves: this map is current as of the timestamp in the banner above.
How this event has developed
: The map for Sunday 16 August keeps Boeotia and Attica at category 4, very high risk, on a much shorter list: Attica, Boeotia and Evia including Skyros, the Cyclades and Crete. Nowhere is at category 5. No fire service situation report naming the West Attica or Boeotia burnt ground and dated 14, 15 or 16 August was found in any source checked this run, and nothing published says the fire has been declared extinguished. Treat the burnt ground as closed and check with your host rather than driving out to look.
: The map for Saturday 15 August, the Dekapentavgoustos holiday, comes down a rung. Nowhere in the country is at category 5, and the very high rating is spread wide instead: Attica including Kythira, Boeotia with Phthiotida and Evia including Skyros, Corinthia, Argolida and Lakonia, Achaia and Ilia, the Sporades, the North and South Aegean, Crete, Halkidiki with Mount Athos, and Kavala, Thasos, Xanthi, Rodopi and Evros including Samothraki. Civil Protection said it had told the services, regions and municipalities in those areas to stay at a raised state of readiness.
: Civil Protection holds Attica, Boeotia and Evia, and Argolida and Corinthia in the Peloponnese, at category 5, state of alert, for Friday 14 August, a second consecutive day at the top of the scale. The bulletin repeats the standing instruction to avoid anything in the countryside that can start a fire by carelessness: burning dry grass and cuttings, spark-producing tools such as grinders and welding gear, outdoor grills, beekeeping smokers and thrown cigarette ends. Nothing published this day reports a flare-up, a new evacuation message or a road reopening on the West Attica fire ground.
: The rating jumps. Civil Protection puts Attica, Boeotia and Evia, Argolida and Corinthia, and Lesvos at category 5, state of alert, for Thursday 13 August. That is the top of the five-point scale and the first time either Attica or Boeotia has been at it since the fire began on 31 July. ERT reported the state mechanism placed on its highest state of readiness. A category 5 day is when the standing preventive bans bite hardest: burning cut vegetation, spark-producing tools such as grinders and welding gear, outdoor grills and beekeeping smokers are all prohibited, and regional authorities can close national parks, forests and other sensitive ground to vehicles and visitors for the full 24 hours. No decision naming the West Attica burnt ground was found this run, but treat that ground as shut in any case, and keep your phone on and off silent for 112 messages.
: A separate fire starts in farmland at Akontio in Boeotia, inland near Livadeia, in the middle of the Thursday afternoon. Ground crews and aircraft worked it and it was brought under control the same day, with low vegetation burnt and no settlement threatened. It is well east of the Xironomi and Porto Germeno ground and has nothing to do with this fire, but it is in the same province and turns up under the same search words.
: The map for Wednesday 12 August is unchanged again for the burnt area: Attica with Kythira, and Boeotia with Phthiotida, Fokida and Evia, all at category 4. Nothing published on 11 or 12 August reports a flare-up, a new evacuation message or a road reopening on the West Attica fire ground, and no fire service situation report carrying either date was found in any source checked this run. The fire has still not been declared extinguished.
: The Civil Protection map for Tuesday 11 August keeps Attica, including Kythira, and Boeotia at category 4, very high risk, a third day at that level. Phthiotida and Evia including Skyros, Corinthia, Argolida and Lakonia, the Cyclades and Lesvos, Chios, Samos and Ikaria carry the same rating. The bulletin tells the state services, regions and municipalities in those areas to stay at a raised state of readiness.
: The map for Monday 10 August holds Attica and Kythira, and Boeotia, at category 4 for a second day. Applications open at the municipalities of the burnt area, western Attica and Boeotia included, for the first-needs allowance and the household goods payment. Reports say the damaged areas are to be formally delimited by 20 August, with applications for repair and rebuilding grants opening in early September. No fire service situation report for the West Attica ground dated 8, 9 or 10 August was found in any source checked this run, so nothing has been published to say the burnt ground is open.
: Civil Protection's map for Sunday 9 August puts Attica, including Kythira, and Boeotia back at category 4, very high risk, two days after both had come down a rung. Phthiotida, Evia, Corinthia, Argolida, Arkadia, Lakonia, Crete, the Cyclades and Lesvos, Chios, Samos and Ikaria are at the same level.
: The deputy minister for civil protection, Kostas Katsafados, sets out how the money will reach people. Applications for the first-needs allowance of up to 600 euros and for household goods of up to 6,000 euros for a main residence open at the municipalities on Monday 10 August, with an E1, an E9 and a family status certificate needed. Rent support of 300 to 500 euros a month is available where a main home has been made unusable, repair and rebuilding is covered in full by the state, and demolition of red-tagged buildings is paid for. He said first payments should follow within about ten days where a file is complete. Reports of the inspection tally at Porto Germeno put 79 buildings in the red category, 56 in the yellow and 57 in the green.
: The daily risk map steps Attica and Kythira, and Boeotia, down to category 3, high risk, the first day since the fire started on which neither is at the very high rating. No fire service situation report for the West Attica ground carrying this date or the previous one was found in any source checked, and the fire has not been declared fully extinguished, so the burnt area should still be treated as closed ground.
: Kostas Tsigkas, president of the Union of Fire Service Officers, said in the morning that the fire was in remission and that if nothing reignited by midday it could be treated as contained. Three areas were still working at that point: above Vilia, north-east of Psatha, and Loumba near Megara. By mid-afternoon he had gone no further than cautious optimism, saying the subsoil around the perimeter was hot enough for a light gust to start new outbreaks, and that the real picture would only be clear that evening once ground temperatures could be read.
: The interministerial meeting at the Maximos Mansion agrees the support package. State grants are to cover the full cost of repairing and rebuilding homes and buildings, with a payment of up to 6,000 euros for a main residence. Employment contracts for staff of damaged businesses are suspended for three months, tax and insurance obligations for six, and foreclosures for a year. Anti-erosion and flood-prevention works on the burnt ground are to start in the middle of September and finish by the end of the year. The measures were extended to cover Psatha and Alepochori.
: The Fire Service says there is no longer a single active front in Attica, and warns that the middle of the day is when the ground reawakens. Two fresh flare-ups at Veniza and Loumba during the afternoon keep crews on the hill overnight.
: Kyriakos Mitsotakis is announced as chairing an interministerial meeting at the Maximos Mansion at 11am on 5 August on compensation for residents, farmers and businesses hit by this summer's fires.
: The Fire Crime Investigation Directorate puts the start of the fire at a place called Mavro Spithari in Boeotia and attributes it to a short circuit on the private power line running to a wind farm. Its experts found that strong wind set the conductors swinging until they touched, throwing sparks into dry grass, and recorded technical shortcomings and poor workmanship on the line, including inadequate spacing between cables. A fire had already broken out on the same line on 27 June, about 150 metres away, for the same reason.
: The fire runs east towards Megara. 112 alerts go to Kandili, Ano Vlychada, Agios Konstantinos, the Megara industrial zone and Papa Perivoli, and later to Loumba, Morfeika and Ano Alepochori. Psatha is told to leave towards Megara as flames reach houses.
: Fronts at Veniza and Psatha remain the main concern. New 112 alerts send people from Kandili and Agia Skepi, near Megara, towards Nea Peramos. Helicopters operate while fixed-wing aircraft stay grounded in the wind.
: Two water-dropping helicopters collide over Psatha. Two crew are killed, a Greek national and a Danish national, and two others, a Greek and a Briton, get out of the second aircraft alive. Reuters reported that an investigation into the cause had begun.
: The fire crosses the summit of Mount Kithairon and descends towards Veniza, splitting into three fronts around Porto Germeno. Evacuation alerts cover Alepochori, Psatha, Veniza, Louba, Zachouli, Agia Paraskevi, Mytikas, Kryo Pigadi and Agios Nektarios.
: Gusts of 112 km/h are recorded on Penteli and 130 km/h at Paximada Karystou. Fixed-wing water bombers are grounded for much of the day.
: Fire breaks out on the Friday morning near Xironomi in Boeotia and spreads towards Kalamaki and Agios Vasileios on strong northerly winds.
: The front reaches the shoreline at Agios Vasileios, about 80km north-west of Athens, and a sea evacuation begins. To Vima reported 229 people taken off by late afternoon; the Fire Service total was later given as 254, using a fire service vessel and speedboat, coast guard boats and private craft.
: A separate fire at Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, closes the Aigaleo peripheral road towards Attiki Odos, with police diversions onto Athinon Avenue. 112 messages go to Afaia Chaidariou and Ano Dasos Chaidariou.
What travellers are asking
Is it safe to travel to Athens?
Yes. Athens has not been evacuated, smoked out or closed at any point in this event, and no disruption to the airport, the metro or the archaeological sites has been reported. The fire is over the hills to the north-west, seventy kilometres and more from the centre. The one thing to plan around is driving out of the city westwards: the Aigaleo peripheral road was closed towards Attiki Odos on 31 July because of a separate fire at Aspropyrgos, and there were evacuation alerts near Megara on 2 August. Check your route the morning you leave.
Are the Greek islands affected?
Overwhelmingly no. Rhodes, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Naxos, Kos and the great majority of island destinations have had no part in this. Crete and Paros had their own fires the week before and are improving; the Andros alert was lifted on 30 July. A new fire started on Kefalonia overnight into 2 August, so check locally if that is where you are going. Ferries and island airports have not been reported disrupted by the Boeotia fire, which is on the mainland and inland of the Gulf of Corinth.
Is Delphi open?
No closure of Delphi has been announced in any source reviewed. Delphi is in Fokida, on the north side of the Gulf of Corinth, well west of the Boeotia fire. The Fokida fire that began at Skaloma on 1 August was in the hills nearer Eupalio, some distance from the site and the town. Two things are worth doing anyway: check the Ministry of Culture page on the morning, and remember that Greek archaeological sites close in extreme heat far more often than they close for fire. That is the more likely reason to find the gate shut in August.
Can I still drive from Athens to Corinth and the Peloponnese?
The motorway between Athens and Corinth has not been reported closed in this event. Be careful with what you find in search results, though: reports of that motorway and the Proastiakos suburban rail halting near Agioi Theodoroi are dated 1 June, not August, and they keep surfacing as though they were current. What is current is that the corridor passes Megara, where 112 alerts were issued on 2 August and again on 3 August, the second time for the industrial zone itself. Corinthia was at category 5, the top of the risk scale, on 13 and 14 August and came off the very high list for Sunday 16 August, so check before you set off and treat an alert on your phone as overriding your satnav.
Is the fire out yet?
Not as far as anything published says. The president of the Union of Fire Service Officers described it as in remission on 5 August and would go no further than cautious optimism about containment later the same day, warning that the ground around the perimeter was hot enough underneath for a gust of wind to start it again. Crews stay in place until the perimeter and the interior have both cooled, which takes days rather than hours on a fire this size. Nothing published since says the fire has been declared out. The daily risk rating for Attica and Boeotia came down a rung on 7 August, sat at category 4 from 9 to 12 August, went to category 5, state of alert, on 13 and 14 August, and is back at category 4 for 15 and 16 August. Treat the burnt ground as closed.
My accommodation is at Porto Germeno or Psatha. What should I do?
Contact the owner before you travel, and ask specifically whether the building is standing and whether it has power, water and a road in. Well over a hundred homes on this coast were reported damaged or destroyed on 1 August, and Psatha was told to evacuate again on 3 August with flames at the houses. Power was still being reconnected pole by pole at Porto Germeno on 8 August, and applications for state help opened at the municipalities on 10 August, which tells you what condition that shore is in. Do not set off intending to assess it yourself; you are likely to be turned back at a roadblock rather than talked through. If you cannot reach the owner, assume the booking is not usable and start looking for an alternative. Athens is a straightforward substitute and is running normally.
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