Wildfire costs Europe €4.1bn damages – report

Wildfires spread in destinations like Sicily, Croatia and Greece, as it costs Europe an estimated €4.1 billion ($4.43 billion) in damages so far this year, according to research was based on data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

Nearly 400,000 hectares of land across the continent has so far been destroyed by forest blazes, according to the report from Distrelec, a major distributor of power sector components.

Greece had the largest losses of €1.66 billion ($ 1.8 billion), and the fires had taken more than 161,000 hectares of land in Greece as of August 30. Spain recorded the second worst-affected country, with losses of 84,315 hectares, and losses of €871 million.

However, experts have called upon authorities to actually raise awareness and improve forest and vegetation management to reduce the fire risk.