Greece began the 2025 fire season with approximately 18,800 firefighters. Only around 9,000 personnel in the service work in field units that respond directly to fires.
Firefighters account for 0.47 percent of the workforce
According to Eurostat data, Greece had 20,500 professional firefighters in 2025. This figure represents 0.47 percent of the country’s total workforce, the highest rate in the European Union.
A significant proportion of the firefighters serving during the fire season work in administrative, support and other operational units. Around 1,000 firefighters are also stationed at 14 regional airports.
Need for new personnel
Nikos Lavranos, president of the Federation of Greek Fire Service Employees, said the service urgently needs approximately 2,500 to 3,000 new firefighters to operate regularly.
The average age of service personnel fell from 49 to 47 following new recruitments and retirements over the past two years. Despite this, staffing gaps continue to put pressure on field operations.
Overtime and accumulated leave
Akis Bardakis, president of the EMODE Firefighters’ Union, said continuous deployments and overtime were being imposed because of staff shortages. Bardakis said permanent personnel had accumulated more than 3 million days of leave.
Bardakis said all leave was canceled during the major fires in Attica and Boeotia. Some firefighters were kept on standby again after working 24-hour shifts, and the required rest periods were often not observed.
Deaths during the fire season
Three firefighters and two people working aboard a firefighting helicopter died this summer. Long working hours, staff shortages, frequent deployments and the need to reorganize the service’s approximately 20-year-old organizational structure were identified as among firefighters’ main problems.
