Hundreds of tourists were rescued by boat from beaches in northern Greece on Thursday as a forest fire bore down on two popular resorts in the Halkidiki peninsula south of Thessaloniki. The evacuation had to happen by sea because the flames were getting close to the beaches. When the fire reaches the shoreline and the only exit is a small boat, the holiday brochure version of Greece disappears fast.
Tourism, Fire, and the State's Emergency Mode
Water bombing planes and helicopters and almost 150 firefighters battled the blaze. Two injured firefighters were taken to hospital. The fire spread across the Halkidiki peninsula south of the city of Thessaloniki, and within hours of erupting it was threatening homes around the popular resorts of Siviri and Fourka, which are packed with summer tourists. The region is dominated by flammable pine forests. That mix of tourism, combustible land, and emergency response is what passes for planning until the smoke arrives.
Greece's civil protection agency sent evacuation warnings by phone to people in the two resorts. ERT public television reported that more than 250 tourists in bathing costumes, many carrying children in their arms, were evacuated by sea in 15 small boats brought into service for the emergency. Dozens queued on a pontoon at Fourka waiting to flee as smoke blotted out the sky over the resorts, according to images broadcast by ERT. There were also traffic jams of cars trying to leave Fourka and Siviri. The state can send a phone alert. It can also send a helicopter. It still can't stop the fire from reaching the beach.
Flames, Alerts, and Bottlenecks
ERT said a three-kilometre-long wall of flames up to 30 metres high was closing in on the resorts. Sophia, a home owner in the region who only gave her first name, told AFP by phone: "We are on the beach and looking for a way to get away." She said: "From where we are, we can see that flames have reached the town and the houses." That is the whole arrangement in one sentence: people on the beach, smoke in the sky, and a search for escape while the fire advances.
Firefighters said strong winds made the battle difficult. Greek authorities had issued a maximum five alert for fires for much of the Greek mainland, and Halkidiki authorities had banned the public from entering the region's pine forests. Weather forecasters predicted winds of up to 100 kilometres, or 60 miles, an hour on Friday. The warnings came after the danger was already visible from the beach, which is how emergency governance usually works when the terrain, the weather, and the built-up tourist economy all collide.
A Month of Fire, a System of Reaction
The authorities said 40 forest fires were reported across Greece in 24 hours and that nine were still not controlled by late Thursday. Already this month, two crew from a helicopter helping to battle a forest fire near Athens died when their aircraft collided with another helicopter in mid-air. The fire destroyed 110 square kilometres of forest. Those are the numbers behind the spectacle: 40 fires in a day, nine still uncontrolled, two dead crew members, and 110 square kilometres burned away.
The response is always the same. Warnings by phone. Boats on standby. Helicopters overhead. Firefighters pushed into dangerous conditions. Tourists and residents left to improvise their exit while the resorts fill with smoke. The machinery of the state arrives as emergency management after the fact, not as protection before the flames. On the beach in Halkidiki, that gap was visible in real time.