‘We are destroyed’: Greek islanders say cost of wildfires will stretch far into the future

Bel Trew reports from the devastated island of Evia, where residents say the impact of recent blazes will last for generations

Giorgios stands by the charred remains of his pine trees on Evia island, Greece (Bel Trew)

Dwarfed by the silhouette remains of a torched forest, Giorgios explains how he has lost 50 years – or two whole generations – of income to the wildfires that burned his home for seven days and seven nights.

The father of three lives on Greece’s second-largest island, Evia, a quarter of which is now a devastated, burnt wasteland.

The tidal wave of flames consumed Giorgios’s home, his warehouse of tools, and all of his nearly 3,000 pine trees, whose resin he cultivated for a living.