Greece recorded the smallest burned area among five southern European countries this fire season, according to Minister of State Akis Skertsos, who presented figures from the European Copernicus/EFFIS monitoring system in a social media post.
Skertsos said that as of September 9, 2026, Greece had recorded 335,230 stremmas of burned land, which he said was 30.1% below the country's 20-year average. A stremma is a Greek unit of land measurement equal to roughly one-tenth of a hectare.
He compared the figure to four other southern European countries. Spain recorded 2,965,020 stremmas burned, up 246.6% on its 20-year average. Italy recorded 1,075,970 stremmas, up 104.3%. France recorded 969,310 stremmas, up 599.5%. Portugal recorded 654,380 stremmas, down 13.9% on its average.
Minister urges caution over figures
Skertsos said there was no reason for celebration, noting that the fire season had not yet ended and that every forest fire brings losses that affect everyone. He said a proper assessment could not be based on triumphalism or on dismissing the risk, but only on comparison with Greece's own past performance and with other Mediterranean countries.
He said sustained investment in recent years in prevention, early detection and operational firefighting, through the roughly 2 billion euro "AIGIS" programme, was beginning to build greater resilience. He pointed to new aerial and ground firefighting assets, satellite data, drones and modern early-detection technology, a forest-clearing programme called "anti-Nero" and specially trained firefighter forest commandos as measures strengthening the country's capacity to tackle fires before they grow uncontrollable.
Forest loss at low levels for third year
Skertsos said the data reflected this, noting that for a third consecutive year the loss of pure forest in Greece had remained at very low levels. He said that in 2025 Greece recorded the best performance in the Mediterranean in protecting pure forest, with just 3.9 stremmas lost per 100,000 stremmas, compared with 13.6 in Portugal.
He said the conclusion was not that Greece had "won the fight against the climate crisis," describing it instead as an unequal battle that can never be permanently won.
Fatalities and the Porto Germeno fire
Skertsos said it should never be forgotten that behind every fire are people, property, forests and ecosystems. He said Greece lost five firefighters and four civilians this year, while a fire in Almeria, Spain, killed 13 people.
He said the difficult nature of this year's fire season was illustrated by the large fire at Porto Germeno, which he said got out of control and burned valuable forest land in the area amid very strong winds that severely limited the ability of aircraft to operate safely during the first critical hours.
What comes next
Skertsos said the conclusion was that investment in prevention, technology, personnel and civil protection resources could make a country more resilient in an increasingly difficult climate environment, though this did not mean there would not still be difficult fires each year that test even the most modern and powerful civil protection and forest firefighting systems.
He said this year's data so far showed Greece was in a better position both compared with its own historical average and compared with most southern European countries, calling it an achievement to build on in the future.
