ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece – Some 17 days after it started near the port city of Alexandroupolis – the cause still disputed – a wildfire in the Evros region of Greece near Turkey’s border was being brought under control on Sept. 4, leaving a ravaged landscape behind.

State broadcaster ERT said there hadn’t been an active front for a week but that some 93,000 hectares (229,808 acres) – 50 square miles larger than New York City – had been destroyed, much of it in the Dadia National Forest.

Crews were going over the smoldering aftermath of ashes to shut down any potential flare-ups for the blaze that was the largest single fire in Europe in 20 years, one of hundreds that spread across the country this summer.

There were still 740 firefighters on the ground, supported by 124 vehicles and five firefighting aircraft and teams from a number of other countries who were heading home as the fire was finally contained.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis deflected criticism during a debate in Parliament over his New Democracy government’s handling of the disaster that couldn’t be overcome despite adding firefighter capacity following 2021 fires.

“Although we were better prepared than any other year, we faced an unprecedented combination of incidents,” he said, blaming climate change, arsonists and refugees for being behind the blaze in the region.

It’s too late for this year but he also said more water-dropping aircraft would be acquired – by 2027 – and that 100 drones will be added to spot fires at their outbreak, aided by 500 forest scientists and 1000 more firefighters.

Greenpeace’s Executive Director in Greece, Nikos Charalambides, said there was worry that not much will be left of the Dadia forest that’s a refugee for people seeking greenery, but also a route for refugees to sneak in from Turkey.

has commented on the ecological disaster caused by the massive fire in the Dadia

“We still don’t know if anything remains of the Dadia forest,” Charalambides said, adding that, “The nesting sites of the black vulture, which represented the healthiest population of raptors in the area, have been obliterated.”

He said that, “We are discussing trees that are more than 100 years old, and on their flat canopies, raptors make their nests,” leaving them without that, adding to the environmental catastrophe.

He said, however, that there’s still a chance that birds and animals whose habitats were ruined may “relocate to another area if they have survived, and we might encounter them again in a different location in the future.”