Wildfire in Rhodes Island, Greece (2023-07-26)

Activation date: 2023-07-26
Event type: Wildfire

Activation reason:
This CEMS Risk and Recovery Standard activation has been requested to provide damage delineation and grading product over Rhodes Island, Greece, which was hit by a wildfire on 18 July 2023, started around 16:00 UTC. Given the severity of the event, the Authorised User (AU) activated first the CEMS Rapid Mapping. Through the EMSR675 activation, delineation monitoring products have been delivered until 29th July, when a GeoEye-1 image showed no active flames in the area, leading the Rapid Mapping service to deliver the Grading product. The CEMS Rapid Mapping analysis confirmed what reported by the news and the AU at the time of the request to activate the CEMS Risk and Recovery Standard: many villages, agricultural and forest areas have been affected from the fire, that had an enormous impact on many touristic and populated areas, so that large scale mass evacuations were ordered and executed.In order to be provided with information about the severity damage grade, the AU activated the CEMS RRM STD, requesting the P07-Wildfire delineation and grading product.The Wildfire delineation and grading (P07) product shows the delineation of the burnt area and the associated level of damage as derived from the analysis of post-event optical VHR images. The wildfire that hit Rhodes island burnt 17628.7 ha. The damage assessment resulted in 3016.4 ha slightly damaged, 13155.1 ha moderately damaged, 1450.9 ha highly damaged, and 6.3 ha destroyed.