ATHENS — Sparks from Greece’s aging electricity grid are responsible for a disproportionate share of the country’s most destructive wildfires, according to preliminary data from Greece’s Arson Crimes Investigation Directorate and evidence from recent fire investigations. 

While power infrastructure accounts for only a small share of wildfire incidents, fires sparked by the grid often break out under the most dangerous conditions — during high winds, in periods of heavy electricity demand and often in remote, fire-prone areas — making them more likely to spread rapidly and become catastrophic. 

According to the Arson Crimes unit, fires linked to the electricity grid account for about 75 percent of the land burned in Greece this year.

Two deadly wildfires in late July — one in western Attica and one on the island of Crete —were also linked to the electricity grid in preliminary findings from the Greek fire brigade. The fires destroyed more than 36,000 acres and killed four people. 

“Six out of 10 major fires and 55 percent of the area burnt in 2025 were caused by the power grid,” said Elias Tziritis, wildfires actions coordinator at World Wildlife Fund Greece. “Statistically speaking, the majority of fires may not start from the power grid, but these are the ones that cause the most major, devastating fires.”

Loose or sagging power lines, vegetation coming in contact with cables, dust buildup on transmission equipment and other such faults can all generate sparks. The risk rises during strong winds and periods of heavy electricity demand, when aging infrastructure is under greater strain. 

Much of Greece’s electricity grid was installed decades ago and runs above ground through fire-prone forests and increasingly depopulated rural areas. In the 1960s, the country opted for an overhead network as a cheaper way to extend electricity across the country, while the prolonged financial crisis that began in 2009 further constrained investment in the system.

Critics say Greece has moved too slowly to bury distribution lines and adapt the network to increasingly severe fire conditions.

“We raised the issue years ago, calling for something to be done with the power grid urgently,” said Christos Kalogeropoulos, a retired lieutenant-general with the Fire Service and former director of the Arson Crimes unit. “We have been calling for urgent underground cabling.”

Greece’s power distribution operator HEDNO disputes suggestions that the network is a major cause of wildfires, saying only about 1 percent of wildfire incidents recorded in 2025 were attributed to the electricity grid, compared with roughly 3 percent in the U.S. The company also said its crews have been deployed to major fire fronts to support emergency services and restore electricity to affected communities. 

“The easy targeting of HEDNO whenever a fire breaks out serves neither the truth nor the protection of the public but creates false impressions, and, in many cases, appears to serve short-term expediencies and self-serving agendas by covering up local responsibilities,” said the company in a statement.

Following the fire in Crete, authorities arrested two HEDNO network operations and maintenance managers, who were later released. In Viotia, where a late-July fire spread into western Attica, investigators suspect sparks came from equipment on a private wind farm. A local mayor, a contractor and a company owner were taken into custody last week.

Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou said the government plans to tighten rules governing private power projects. But experts warn that focusing on private operators risks obscuring the broader problem of an aging public grid. 

Moving cables underground is expensive and time-consuming, said Paleologos Paleologou, associate professor of forest protection at the Agricultural University of Athens. 

Paleologou said researchers need access to detailed data on the location of power lines and pylons to model where the network is most vulnerable. “If we had that information, we could tell them where their network is vulnerable and where a fire could break out,” he said. “Since the budget is limited, we should prioritize the most difficult areas.”

The government is currently using money from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility to fund underground cabling. It says the share of the distribution network that is underground has risen to about 14 percent, up from 9 percent in 2021. 

Alexandra Sdoukou, a spokesperson for the ruling New Democracy party, said burying the entire 120,000-kilometer medium-voltage network would cost about €35 billion, requiring the government to first focus on areas under the greatest risk. 

Greece’s Energy Ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, opposition parties and advocacy groups accuse the government of moving too slowly, failing to maintain the grid properly and dropping some fire-prevention projects from EU recovery funding.

“There is still no public acknowledgement of the problem,” said Tziritis. “The issue should be recognized and efforts to find solutions should be taken at the government level.”

Such an acknowledgement could also carry legal and financial consequences. California utility Pacific Gas & Electric filed for bankruptcy after its equipment sparked catastrophic wildfires and exposed the company to billions of dollars in liabilities.

In Greece, the number of court cases involving fires linked to the electricity grid rose from 369 to 681 in 2024, said Kalogeropoulos.

One of the few cases to result in a final ruling against HEDNO is a class action lawsuit following a 2015 wildfire in Neapoli, Laconia, which destroyed homes and large areas of woodland and farmland. Around 90 victims are now pursuing compensation. 

“It is a real struggle for a citizen to go after an electricity grid company,” said Evgenia Lazaraki, a lawyer representing the victims. Utilities, she said, have both the technical expertise and access to evidence needed to defend themselves, putting plaintiffs at a significant disadvantage. 

ATHENS — As Spain and France began to gain control over devastating wildfires that last week sparked one of their largest peacetime evacuations, Greece was battling multiple blazes on Sunday — and a sense that its odyssey is far from over.

Two firefighters, a Greek and a Danish national, died after a pair of helicopters battling a major wildfire burning out of control west of Athens crashed in midair. Another Greek and a British national were recovered alive.

Television footage showed one of the helicopters exploding and plunging to the ground in flames after the collision. Foreign firefighting and helicopter crews are often deployed in Greece to help tackle wildfires.

Another three Greek firefighters died last Wednesday while tackling wildfires in Crete and on the Peloponnese, a rugged peninsula in southern Greece.

While a fire that has been burning since Friday around Porto Germeno on the Gulf of Corinth some 60 ​kilometers northwest of Athens has subsided, on Saturday the flames crossed a mountain to the south, fanned by strong winds of up to 130 kilometers per hour, and reached the settlement of Veniza closer to the capital. According to initial estimates, the fire has destroyed around 200 houses in the area.

On Sunday flames spread rapidly through western Attica, a region that encompasses Athens, threatening communities and an industrial district outside Megara, about 30 kilometers from the capital. Speaking on state TV Ert, the president of the firefighters’ federation, Nikos Lavranos, described it as a “huge front” and a “black blanket covering an area of around [25 acres].”

Dozens of settlements have been evacuated, and firefighters are focusing on preventing the flames from advancing toward Megara, pop. 30,000. Greece’s firefighting service said more than 2,500 people had been evacuated in western Attica by late Sunday afternoon.

“Unfortunately, we have uncontrolled fires in far too many areas. As soon as the fire brigade arrives at one spot, just as the fire is being brought under control, it flares up again in another spot,” Megara Mayor Panagiotis Margetis told Open TV.

Firefighters were also fighting another blaze in the Peloponnese on Sunday as well as on the island of Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy. More than 500 firefighters have been deployed across Greece.

Wind speeds are set to drop significantly on Monday, according to the National Meteorological Service, which should ease the work of the fire services.

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after months of record-breaking heat and little rain. Scientists have found that climate change vastly increased the likelihood of Western Europe’s record-breaking heat wave in late June as well as a spring drought — both events that made the land more fire-prone.

Wildfires in France and Spain forced the evacuation of over 300,000 people last month.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his “deepest sorrow” for the “tragic accident” of the helicopters, and pledged state support for those whose homes were destroyed.

“There are moments when the force of nature and the intensity of weather conditions exceed all human planning and every operational capability,” he said in a social media post on Sunday. “These are extremely difficult days for our country.”