Salamina: debris and branches piled up after the fires

A few days after the deadly wildfires that struck Salamina, images from the largest island of the Saronic Gulf have brought an older problem back to the fore. According to a report published on Wednesday 19 August 2026, piles of rubbish, mounds of building debris, dry grass and branches are to be found at several points, while residents are said to have taken on part of the collection themselves. The Steno Faneromenis Association, as reported, hired a bulldozer at its own expense to gather up the mass of branches that had accumulated in the area. At Agios Georgios and Psili Ammos the municipality’s refuse trucks appear to be confined to selective collection, without covering all the waste lying close to spots where bathers swim. According to information in the same report, municipal trucks suitable for collecting debris and branches remain out of service because of breakdowns.

The municipal authority gives a different reading of the same issue. The mayor of Salamina, Giorgos Panagopoulos, speaking on a television programme on Tuesday 18 August, argued that “no fire started from the rubbish” and invoked the disparity between permanent and summer residents: the roughly 37,000 permanent residents, as he said, become 300,000 during the summer months, while state funding and the staffing of the cleaning services correspond to the registered population. That argument captures a real structural asymmetry in the holiday municipalities of Attica, but it does not answer the question of why the equipment for bulky waste remains out of action at the very moment when needs peak.

The dispute also has a local political dimension. The group Active Citizens “I elia tis Orsas”, in a text published on Wednesday 19 August by a local news outlet on the island, argues that the cleanliness issue has remained unresolved through seven years of this municipal administration and raises the question of political responsibility directly, going as far as the possibility of resignation. This is a statement by citizens rather than a piece of reporting, but it records the mood that has developed since the fire at Peristeria. The two readings do not coincide: on one side there is an accusation of managerial inaction, on the other an appeal to an objective inability to cover an island with an extensive coastline and dozens of settlements.

The practical stake of the coming weeks is the fire-protection dimension of the problem. Piles of dry branches and green waste in coastal and semi-urban areas act as flammable material, especially as Attica enters a new heatwave with the temperature expected to reach 38 degrees at the weekend. At the same time, the procedures for recording the damage from the fire are under way, while the investigation into the cause of the fire remains open. No timetable has been announced for repairing the municipality’s vehicles or for emergency reinforcement with equipment from other bodies, factors that will determine whether the piles are removed before the end of the fire season.