ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters in Greece battled scattered fires Tuesday in hopes of containing the remnants of a massive forest fire that devastated the northern suburbs of Athens, forcing evacuations and leaving at least one person dead.
The strong wind that fanned the flames on Sunday and Monday has died down during the night. According to the fire department, there are no more active, advancing fronts and firefighters are concentrating on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of slowly burning areas.
Authorities were busy trying to extinguish as much of the fire as possible by Tuesday afternoon, with winds expected to pick up again, with gusts of up to 60-70 kilometres per hour.
Reinforcements in the form of fire-fighting aircraft, firefighters and vehicles came from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Serbia and Romania.
The fire started on Sunday afternoon near Lake Marathon, about 35 kilometers northeast of Athens, moved over Mount Pendeli and descended into the northern and northeastern suburbs of Athens.
Firefighters found the burned body of a woman in an industrial building in the suburb of Vrilissia just after midnight. The woman was believed to be a worker who became trapped in the building in an area under evacuation orders. More than a dozen people were treated by paramedics, mainly for smoke inhalation, while five firefighters suffered minor burns and breathing problems, the fire department said.
Three hospitals, including a children’s hospital, two monasteries and a children’s home were evacuated on Monday afternoon. At least 30 push notifications were sent to mobile phones in the area, warning people in several Athens suburbs and settlements further from the city to flee.
The flames, which reached a height of about 25 meters, were fanned by strong winds, hampering the efforts of more than 700 firefighters and nearly three dozen firefighting aircraft and helicopters on Monday.
Six water-dropping plans and six helicopters took off at first light Tuesday, fire officials said, to support hundreds of firefighters on the ground. Dozens of homes and businesses were reportedly burned, though authorities did not yet have an exact number.
The wildfire tore through pine forests that had been left bone dry by repeated heat waves this summer. June and July were the hottest months on record in Greece, which also recorded its warmest winter. An early start to this year’s fire season has put Greece’s firefighting forces under strain.
“Firefighters have been working flat out for months,” said Nikos Lavranos, head of Greece’s main firefighters’ union. “They are exhausted.”
On Monday, police said 380 officers had assisted in evacuations, helping more than 250 people away from the flames. They posted a video on social media showing officers carrying elderly people from their homes to waiting vehicles against a backdrop of a crimson night sky.
Authorities said some people who refused to leave their homes later became trapped and had to be rescued, endangering the lives of firefighters. The affected areas — at their closest, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the heart of Athens — typically have thousands of residents. But it was unclear how many people were on vacation at the height of the summer season, and how many had followed evacuation orders or stayed on their own to fight the fire.
Meteorologists warned of the increased risk of forest fires due to the weather conditions from Sunday to Thursday. Dozens of other forest fires also broke out in various parts of Greece on Monday.
The Mediterranean country is often hit by forest fires during its hot, dry summers, but authorities say climate change is causing the fires to become larger and more frequent.
In 2018, a massive fire tore through the coastal town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on the road as they tried to flee in their cars. More than 100 people died, including some who drowned as they tried to swim away from the flames.
More than 20 people died in forest fires in Greece last year, including 18 migrants who were trapped by flames as they trekked through a forest in northeastern Greece and were hit by a massive blaze that raged for more than two weeks.
