10% of Greece destroyed by fire: Report

Over one-tenth of Greece, mostly in the southern Peloponnese peninsula, has been burned down by several wildfires in a period of 25 years, a report says.

According to a report by the Greek institute of agricultural research (Ethiage) and the Greek office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), published on Thursday by the Athens press agency, about 1.3 million hectares of the total 13 million-plus hectares of land area in Greece was destroyed in fire between 1983 and 2008, AFP reported. 

According to the report, 19 percent of the fires, having destroyed 27 percent of forests and farmland, occurred in the Peloponnese. 

Although the causes of most of the fires have never been known, almost 11 percent of them were "the result of arson and about 9 percent were triggered by fires farmers lit to clear their properties." 

The most devastating fires have happened during July, the hottest month of the year in Greece, although the majority of them started in the month of August, during which wind has been the main factor in their fast spread. 

The two organizations which prepared the report called on Greek authorities to "develop an effective system to protect the country's forests." 

"On an annual basis there have been 1,465 forest fires, which burned 52,000 hectares of forest and farm land," says the report. 

During the 2007 fire, one of the most devastating in Greece's history, about 250,000 hectares of land was literally burned to ashes and 77 people died in the Peloponnese and the island of Euboea.