High fire risk on Tuesday in 8 regions

Dozens of areas of the country were placed in risk category 3, meaning high risk, for Tuesday 25 August 2026, according to the Fire Risk Forecast Map issued by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection. The list covers almost all geographical regions of mainland Greece: Fthiotida, Fokida and Aitoloakarnania in Central Greece, Thesprotia, Preveza and Arta in Epirus, Trikala, Larisa and Magnisia in Thessaly, Evros, Rodopi, Kilkis, Thessaloniki, Chalkidiki and Mount Athos in Macedonia and Thrace, as well as Argolida, Korinthia, Ileia, Messinia and Lakonia in the Peloponnese. Civil Protection informed the relevant state services, Regions and Municipalities of these areas, so they would be on heightened alert.

The sources differ in how they describe the extent of the danger. ERT speaks of most of the country, Flash.gr speaks of eight regions, and SKAI of many areas of the country. All three, however, reproduce the same official map and the same list of category 3 regional units: the difference lies in how regional units are grouped into regions, not in the forecast data itself. None of the three mentions an area placed in category 4 or 5 for Tuesday, nor precautionary traffic bans or evacuations.

The map uses a five-level scale. Category 1 corresponds to low risk and 2 to medium. Category 3 means high risk, 4 very high, and 5 an alert situation. In category 3 the likelihood of a fire breaking out is elevated, and if one does break out, weather conditions favour its rapid spread, which is why forces are distributed preventively based on the map. The classification is made per regional unit rather than per municipality, meaning local wind, dryness and vegetation conditions may vary significantly from place to place within the same area. For citizens, Civil Protection’s guidance on high-risk days focuses on avoiding any work that could produce a spark outdoors and notifying the authorities immediately at the first sign of smoke.

The Kilkis Regional Unit had also been at high risk on Monday 24 August, a sign that this is not an isolated day but a continuing episode of danger. On that same Monday, the Fire Service recorded 49 rural and forest fires within 24 hours, a number up on previous days, while the risk had also been high across much of the country the previous weekend. The map is issued daily and adjusted based on updated weather data, so the picture for Wednesday 26 August will be announced by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection on the afternoon of the previous day. All three sources published the forecast on the evening of Monday 24 August, a few hours after the map was issued by the relevant service.