Firefighters battle ‘extremely dangerous’ wildfire near Athens
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Flames from a wildfire threaten residential properties in Dionysos, Greece, on Aug 12.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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ATHENS – Hundreds of firefighters in Greece were battling a major wildfire on Aug 12 that broke out near Athens a day earlier and has raced through parched forest, destroying properties and prompting evacuation orders, according to the authorities.
The fire started on Aug 11 in Varnavas, a town less than 48km north of Athens by road, and spread rapidly within minutes because of high winds, Greece’s national fire service said.
In some places, the flames were more than 24m tall.
A spokesman for the fire service, Mr Vassilios Vathrakogiannis, said despite “superhuman efforts” to contain the fire overnight, it had spread “like lightning.”
The “extremely dangerous” fire was still burning on Aug 12 on two major fronts, according to Greece’s civil protection minister, Mr Vassilis Kikilias, in Grammatiko, north-east of the capital, Athens, and Kallitechnoupoli, to the east of Athens.
He added that strong winds and a protracted drought had created “dramatic conditions” for the more than 600 firefighters working to douse the flames.
The blaze is one of the worst to threaten the capital in 2024 in what has been a busy fire season for the country, in part because of a dry winter and an exceptionally hot summer.
In July, large fires on the island of Evia
Greece’s civil protection authority placed several areas, including Athens, at “extreme fire risk” – the highest level of risk in the country’s five-tier system – for Aug 12.
Firefighters on Aug 12 were also dispatched to smaller blazes north and east of Athens.
Television footage showed residents of one home in the area of Marathon using branches to beat back flames in their yard before firefighting aircraft made successive water drops to extinguish the blaze.
The authorities have ordered at least a dozen communities to evacuate, and television footage on Aug 11 showed motorists fleeing as flames lined the road near Varnavas.
A children’s hospital, a military hospital and two monasteries were also evacuated.
Greece’s Olympic sports complex, north of Athens, was opened overnight to house residents who had to abandon their homes.
There were no reports of casualties, though at least one firefighter experienced burns and several people were given first aid for breathing problems, a spokesperson for the fire service said. The extent of the damage to forest land and homes remained unclear as of midday Monday. NYTIMES
