This summer’s wildfires in Greece have once again left behind not only charred landscapes but also a deep sense of loss, anger, and uncertainty for the future. Residents, farmers, and business owners in affected areas spoke out about their struggles to save their homes, livelihoods, and communities as the flames spread.
Local mayors and officials praised firefighters’ efforts but criticized delays in aerial support and bureaucratic hurdles that, they argue, slowed preventive measures. In Western Achaia, the mayor said firefighting aircraft should have arrived earlier and warned that understaffed forestry services hinder effective fire prevention planning.
In Filippiada, an assistant mayor described how flames broke out simultaneously in two areas. With limited firefighting crews tied up elsewhere, sparks from power lines ignited dry vegetation, spreading rapidly in strong winds. He said he was forced to evacuate residents himself, before the official emergency alert was issued.
Villagers faced their own desperate battles. In Volissos, a resident recounted how the local water supply failed during the fire because backup generators were too weak to power the wells. Others described being left to fight with inadequate resources.
Some risked everything to protect what they had. A livestock farmer in Vonitsa, pulled from the flames once by firefighters, went back in to save his animals. “Without them there is no life,” he said, explaining he could not abandon the cattle and horses that sustain his family.
For others, entire livelihoods turned to ash. A bar owner in Volissos, who left Athens two decades ago to settle by the sea, watched his business burn to the ground. “We were counting on August to survive the rest of the year,” he said. “Now everything is lost. Tourists left, locals left. No one will come back.”
With infrastructure destroyed, businesses ruined, and compensation still uncertain, many survivors are left questioning how they will rebuild. As one resident put it: “They burned our village. This was the second fire. How do we start again?”
