Greek PM says hundreds of thousands of acres burned in summer wildfires

ATHENS, Greece — Fires in Greece this summer will burn an area of at least 150,000 hectares (370,600 acres), the Greek prime minister says today, including a large blaze in the north which has been burning for nearly two weeks.

Greece has been ravaged by deadly wildfires this summer, with the ravaged area amounting to just under the size of London, according to the premier.

The area burned by fires “will exceed 1,500,000,000 square meters (150,000 hectares) including the fire in the Dadia forest,” says Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, referring to the forest fire that the EU has branded the largest ever recorded in the bloc.

Firefighters have been battling the flames currently burning in northeastern Greece for 13 days.

Since it began on August 19, the blaze has claimed the lives of 20 people, 18 of them migrants whose bodies were found in a region that is often used as an entry point from neighboring Turkey.