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According to the BBC, up to 25 firefighters, including 10 engines, were evacuated during the fierce fighting, but several people were injured by the smoke.
Local media reports indicated that the fire started from refugees’ protest against the coronavirus ban, but the matter could not be confirmed.
The refugees, who lost everything in the fire, tried to head to the port city of Mytilen but took refuge in the open on the road due to police obstruction.
The Moria refugee camp was home to some 13,000 people; This is more than four times the capacity of the camp.
Aris Katzhikombins, deputy governor of Lesbos, told a local radio station that the Moria refugee camp had been “completely destroyed” by fire. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called an emergency meeting in the wake of the fire.
A local resident told the BBC that the fire had spread to almost the entire refugee camp.
“In the morning light I can see that some tents have survived, they are fine. But I can see that the rest of the refugee camps have been reduced to ashes, ”said Thanasis Volgarabkis.
The refugee camp was quarantined last week after a resident was found infected with the coronavirus. The number of Covid-19 patients now identified in the camp is 35.
Greek news agency ANA said the fire broke out in the refugee camp after some of the 35 victims refused to isolate themselves with their families. Although this could not be confirmed.
Marco Sandron, coordinator of the Lesbos Doctors Without Borders project, said it was “difficult to tell” how the fire started with a series of small fires and demonstrations.
“It was a time bomb, which finally exploded,” Sandron said, pointing to the fact that refugees have been kept in “inhumane conditions” in the camp for years.
A government spokesman told Greek state television channel ERT that it was investigating whether there had been any arson in Moria. A state of emergency has been declared across the island of Lesbos, he said.
The Moria camp, northeast of Mytilin, the capital of Lesbos, had citizens from 70 different countries, but 80 percent of the total refugees were from Afghanistan.
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