Wildfires have burned through 28% of mainland Attica's total surface area over the past nine years, according to an updated analysis released by the National Observatory of Athens' Meteo service, a finding researchers described as both striking and alarming.
The analysis, covering fires from 2017 to 2025 in mainland Attica, was updated following a recent wildfire in Oinoi, Attica, on July 5, 2026.
It draws on data from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service's Rapid Mapping unit and the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
According to the findings, 13 major wildfires have burned more than 700,000 stremmas (roughly 173,000 acres) across the region since 2017.
Given that mainland Attica's total surface area — excluding Troezinia, the islands and the Athens metropolitan basin — spans 2.5 million stremmas, the burned area represents 28% of the region's entire landmass.
The toll on forested land is even steeper. Attica's forest cover totals approximately 1.23 million stremmas, of which some 465,000 stremmas — or 38% — have burned over the same nine-year period.
Researchers mapped the perimeters of the burned areas, using red, pink and purple shading to denote land burned in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and yellow and orange tones for fires from the preceding years, with the greater Athens basin marked in gray.
The updated figures underscore the cumulative scale of wildfire damage in one of Greece's most densely populated regions, raising renewed concerns about forest recovery, land management and wildfire prevention strategies ahead of the current fire season.