Crete tourist guide

Ierapetra area returns to normal after fires

2025-07-06 20:05:06

The extent of the destruction caused by the large fire in the Ierapetra region was shown in satellite images by the Remote Sensing Laboratory from FORTH. According to preliminary data, the flames have burned at least 6,000 acres of green and agricultural land.

Ierapetra - comparison of fires in 2024 (red) and 2025 (yellow)
(image from the European Sentinel-2 satellite)

Scientists from the laboratory used images from the European satellite Sentinel-2 (Copernicus system), which shows the areas affected by the fire in red. To show the scale of the fire, the area that burned in 2024 is shown in green. At that time, the flames covered an area of 2,500 acres.

Currently, after extinguishing the fire, the residents of the area are trying to return to normal life. The priority for the tourism industry is to welcome guests again and maintain the dynamics of the season. As the mayor of Ierapetra assures, the situation is currently fully normalized, there is no fire threat at the moment, and hotels, apartments, restaurants and beaches are ready to continue the tourist season.

As of yesterday (05.07.) about 80% of evacuated tourists were able to return to their accommodations in the areas of Ferma, Agia Fotia and Koutsounari. Of course, there were cases of cancellations of accommodation reservations, but local hoteliers estimate that this will not have a significant impact on the final result.

The president of the hotel company Iearpetra Hoteliers also emphasizes that this huge fire was also a test of crisis management, which was passed.

Unfortunately, there were also bitter reflections.

After extinguishing the fire, the fire department found severely burned and dead dogs that could not escape the fire because they were chained. Many veterinary clinics are now accepting these burned animals that managed to escape the fire, but now they are wandering around the burned areas, injured and exhausted. Takis Shelter, which runs a large dog shelter, also got involved in the rescue operation.

The drama of the dogs chained up in the fire was the result of a sketch by the cartoonist Γιώργος Μικάλεφ. The inspiration for its creation was the terrible moment when the commander of the municipal police in Ierapetra cuts the chain from the neck of a dead dog. A chain that did not allow the animal to escape the flames. "Do not grieve over my tragic death, but over our tragic life" reads the inscription on the drawing . This is the author's message to fight this illegal but common phenomenon in Crete.

What caused the fire? So far, there is only unconfirmed information that the fire from a few days ago was started by a person welding a water installation. During very high fire risk, work using open flames is prohibited.

From June to today, more than 1,050 fires have been recorded throughout Greece and 191 people have been arrested for their actions contributing to the outbreak and spread of the fires.

Gosia,  2025-07-06 20:05:06

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