Crews battle scattered fires in Athens suburbs

A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire burning in Nea Penteli, Greece, August 12, 2024. (Reuters)

• Helicopters, planes and hundreds of firefighters and vehicles were arriving from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkiye, Serbia and Romania

ATHENS: Firefighters in Greece battled scattered fires as Tuesday broke, hoping to contain the remains of a major wildfire that burned into the northern suburbs of Athens, triggering multiple evacuations and leaving at least one person dead.
With strong winds that had fanned the flames on Sunday and Monday dying down overnight, the fire department said the fire no longer had any active, advancing fronts and firefighters were concentrating their efforts on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of slow-burning areas. Reinforcements of water-dropping aircraft and firefighters were expected to arrive from other countries after Greece requested assistance from Europe’s joint disaster response mechanism.
Authorities were racing to extinguish as much of the blaze as possible ahead of Tuesday afternoon, when winds were predicted to pick up again, with a forecast of gusts reaching up to 60-70 kilometers (37-43 miles) per hour.
Helicopters, planes and hundreds of firefighters and vehicles were arriving from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkiye, Serbia and Romania. Turkiye’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said two firefighting planes and one helicopter had taken off Tuesday morning headed to Greece.
“I wish all the best to our colleagues who work with the motto ‘Forests are the world’s common heritage,’” Yumakli posted on the social media platform X.
Relations between neighbors Greece and Turkiye are frequently tense, with disputes including territorial claims in the Aegean Sea, but they tend to put aside their differences when faced with natural disasters such as earthquakes and forest fires, with each sending assistance to the other when the need arises.
The blaze began Sunday afternoon near Lake Marathon, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Athens, coursed across Mount Pendeli and descended onto 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, an employee of the business, was believed to have become trapped inside the building in an area that had been under evacuation orders.
More than a dozen people were treated by paramedics, mostly for smoke inhalation, while five firefighters suffered light 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 alerts were sent to cell phones in the area warning people in several Athens suburbs and settlements further from the city to flee.
The flames, which reached heights of about 25 meters (80 feet), were fanned by strong winds that hampered the efforts of more than 700 firefighters and nearly three dozen water-dropping planes and helicopters on Monday.
Six water-dropping plans and six helicopters took off at first light on Tuesday, the fire department said, to back up the hundreds of firefighters on the ground. Dozens of homes and businesses were reported to have burned, although authorities did not yet have an exact number.
The wildfire raced through pine forests left tinder-dry by repeated heat waves this summer. June and July were the hottest months ever recorded in Greece, which also recorded its warmest winter ever. An early start of the fire season this year has strained Greece’s firefighting force.
“Firefighters have been working at full tilt for months,” said Nikos Lavranos, head of Greece’s main firefighters’ union. “They are exhausted.”
On Monday, police said 380 police officers had assisted in evacuations, helping to move more than 250 people away from the path of the flames. It posted a video on social media showing officers carrying elderly people out of their homes to waiting vehicles against the backdrop of a flame-red nighttime sky.
Authorities said some people who refused to leave their homes later became trapped and required rescuing, endangering the lives of firefighters. The affected areas — at the closest, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the heart of Athens — typically have thousands of residents. However, it was unclear how many were away on vacation at the height of the summer season, and how many had obeyed the evacuation orders or stayed to fight the blaze.
Meteorologists warned of the increased danger of wildfires because of weather conditions from Sunday until Thursday. Dozens of other wildfires also broke out in several parts of Greece on Monday. The fire department said Tuesday that two teenagers were arrested the previous day on suspicion of arson for allegedly deliberately setting a fire in the southern Athens suburb of Glyfada at a time when firefighters were focused on battling the blaze in the north of the city. The Glyfada fire was quickly extinguished.
Wildfires are frequent in the Mediterranean country during its hot, dry summers, but authorities have said climate change is fueling bigger and more frequent blazes.
In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on the roads as they tried to flee in their cars. More than 100 people died, including some who drowned trying to swim away from the flames.
Last year, wildfires in Greece killed more than 20 people, including 18 migrants who became trapped by the flames as they trekked through a forest in northeastern Greece and were caught by a massive blaze that burned for more than two weeks.