Overview
- The Rethymnon blaze remains active but shows local improvement, with meteo.gr estimating about 4,500 hectares burned and evacuees from Agia Galini largely allowed to return, according to reports on Friday.
- Fire crews say violent winds and dense smoke are forcing the fire to jump and creating new hot spots, and those same conditions are making aerial water drops difficult or impossible.
- Authorities have deployed multiple aerial assets to other fires, sending four water-bombing planes and three helicopters to battle a separate fire near the village of Floka south of Patras.
- The fires have direct human and economic costs: roughly 8,000 people were evacuated from Agia Galini, local homes and businesses have been destroyed, and ferry services have been disrupted by strong winds.
- Officials have placed many regions on a very-high fire-risk alert and the prime minister warned of difficult days ahead as heat, drought and gusting winds raise the chance of further outbreaks.