More than 8,600 acres of brushland, agricultural land and forested areas have been burned by a wildfire that erupted near the Mastrantoni village in Achaia prefecture, in southwest Greece, over the past two days, a research unit (Meteo) at the Athens Observatory announced.
The specific FLAME team within the meteorological unit said satellite imagery shows that the blaze expanded, on average, by 250 hectares per hour at its peak.
The blaze eventually slowed to a standstill when reaching crop land to the southwest.
On the day, another wildfire was reported at the Kontodespoti site on the large island of Evia, as well as near the town of Sapes in the northeast prefecture of Rhodopi.
Reinforced units of fire-fighters were dispatched in both cases.
Nearly half of Greece is in risk alert 4 level on Sunday, as hot and dry conditions – exacerbated by high winds – are ideal for the eruption of wildfires – an annual seasonal scourge in the east Mediterranean country.
