‘Everything is ashes’: How this week’s devastating Greek wildfires could become the norm

Southern Europe is one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change, and the current cataclysmic blazes are likely to become more common, Nikolia Apostolou reports from Kalamata and Marina Rigou from Athens

Gazing at the burnt trees across the street from her home, 60-year-old Antonia Anastasopoulou talks about the children that won’t be coming to visit the Parnitha forest on the weekends, a common habit among many Athenians.

“This forest was Athens’ oxygen producer,’’ she says from her home in Varybobi. “The fire spread so quickly. Now everything has turned into ashes.”

Four days after the first fire started in Athens, dozens of others across the country are still burning, still threatening villages, thousands of acres of farmland, tourist areas like Evia and Gytheio, and archaeological sites like ancient Olympia.