Wildfires burn 45,000 hectares across Greece’s Attica region in 91 hours: Data

More than 110,000 acres (44,500 hectares) of land burned in wildfires across Greece’s Attica region from July 31 to Aug. 4 amid a heat wave, National Observatory of Athens figures showed Thursday.

In its assessment, the FLAME Pyro-meteorology team of the National Observatory of Athens reported that fires burned 111,732 acres (45,216 hectares) in the region, in the approximately 91 hours between the morning of July 31 and the morning of Aug. 4.

The data revealed that more than 61,500 acres (24,888 hectares), or 55% of the total affected area, burned during nighttime hours as the fire swept through Attica.

Greece has been battling wildfires amid ongoing heat waves across Europe as 1,237,645 acres (500,852 hectares) have burned across the continent since the start of the year, according to the EU.

European Forest Fires Information System data also showed that as of Aug. 6, 1,528 fires have been detected across Europe since the start of the year.