West of Athens is fighting the flames: hundreds of firefighters and an air fleet deployed

Efforts continue against a major wildfire west of the Greek capital, Athens. Hundreds of firefighters are deployed on the ground, backed by helicopters and water-dropping aircraft.

High summer temperatures and dry winds across the Mediterranean basin create conditions in which fires spread rapidly. Response capacity in the region is being reinforced with aerial assets.

Other disaster alerts are also active globally over the same period. Emergency services issued a red alert — the most severe warning — after Central America's most active volcano erupted on Monday morning, with conditions reported to have intensified by nightfall.

MHA Analysis

Summer fires in the Mediterranean basin are no longer an exceptional disaster but a seasonal load; the variable is not whether a fire starts but how many fronts a response capacity can work simultaneously. Greece, Türkiye and Italy have spent recent years sharing air fleets to spread that load, and the arrangement has proved relatively insulated from political friction. A regional pooled response remains on the table as both a cheaper and a faster answer than each country enlarging its own fleet.