Three fire fronts in Aitoloakarnania, Messinia, Drama

Three fire fronts occupied the Fire Service at different points around the country on Friday 21 August 2026, in Aitoloakarnania, Messinia and Drama. In Aitoloakarnania, a fire broke out at midday in woodland at Neromana, in the Municipality of Agrinio. Fifty-eight firefighters are working there with 22 vehicles and two ground teams of the 6th Special Forest Operations Unit, while four aircraft and one helicopter are assisting from the air. The Municipality of Agrinio is helping with earthmoving machinery and water tankers. The National Coordination Centre for Operations and Crisis Management is receiving a continuous picture from an unmanned aircraft carrying thermal and optical cameras.

At 15:32 a message was issued through 112 for the area of Xerovouni, Kallithea, advising residents to be on standby. The Aitoloakarnania investigative unit for arson crimes was mobilised for the case, a procedure followed in forest fires which does not prejudge its findings and does not imply that intent has been established. In Messinia, a fire in farm and forest land at Mesochori mobilised 48 firefighters with 17 vehicles and two ground teams of the 9th Special Forest Operations Unit. Four aircraft and one helicopter are working from the air, with the assistance of water tankers from local government. There too a message was issued through 112 advising people to be on standby.

In Drama, the Operations Centre of the Fire Service was informed at around 14:30 of a fire in forest land at Katafyto, Ano Nevrokopi. Thirty-two firefighters are working there with two vehicles and three ground teams of the 2nd, the 7th and the 21st Special Forest Operations Unit, while two aircraft and two helicopters are assisting from the air. The Municipality of Nevrokopi is helping with water tankers. The Kavala investigative unit for arson crimes was also mobilised. This is a mountainous forest area close to the Greek-Bulgarian border, where the morphology of the terrain makes access difficult for vehicles and explains the deployment of three ground teams with only two vehicles.

None of the three fires had been announced as under control or subsiding at the time of publication of this article. For none of them has a cause been announced, nor has any estimate of the burnt area been disclosed. Nor have any injuries, damage to homes or orders to evacuate settlements been announced, beyond the 112 standby messages in Aitoloakarnania and Messinia. The three fronts occurred on a day of high fire risk across most of the country, a few days after the fire fronts in Serres and Karditsa. The simultaneous deployment of forces in three regions far apart from each other shows the pressure on the mechanism at the peak of the fire season. A fresh picture will emerge from the Fire Service’s next updates. Nor has it been clarified whether any of the three fronts threatened infrastructure, crops or livestock units, or whether any roads were closed. The figures for the forces given here reflect the picture at the time of the day’s announcements and may change if the fires last into the night hours, when airborne means do not operate.