Wildfires ripped through southern Rethymno in Crete on July 29 and 30, burning through approximately 45,000 stremmata of...

Wildfires ripped through southern Rethymno in Crete on July 29 and 30, burning through approximately 45,000 stremmata of land, roughly 11,100 acres, according to satellite analysis by the National Observatory of Athens and the meteo.gr science team. The figure was calculated using high-resolution imagery from the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, captured at 12:13 p.m. local time on Thursday July 30 while active fire fronts were still burning across the region. Critically, the 45,000 stremmata count does not include burned land from a separate fire that broke out in the Preveli area. The true total scorched area is larger than the satellite estimate reflects. Multiple fires ignited across the southern Rethymno region over the two-day period, overwhelming firefighting resources across the area. The fires were still active when the satellite passed overhead, meaning the final burned area will likely be significantly higher once complete assessments are done. The Copernicus satellite program is used across Europe for emergency monitoring of wildfires, floods, and other natural disasters. The National Observatory of Athens processed the imagery to produce the preliminary damage estimate. #Crete #WildfiresGreece #Greece