Crews battle scattered fires in Athens suburbs, helped by calmer winds and reinforcements

Firefighters battled scattered fires on Tuesday in hopes of containing 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 focused on extinguishing hundreds of slow-burning areas. Reinforcements of water-dropping aircraft and firefighters were arriving from abroad after the government requested assistance from Europe’s joint disaster response mechanism.

Dozens of homes and businesses were reported to have burned, although authorities did not yet have an exact number. Winds strengthened again Tuesday afternoon, but no new major flare-ups were reported.

The European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service, which provides mapping services for natural disasters using satellite images, said that by Monday the blaze had burned 8,500 hectares (85 square kilometers).

Helicopters, planes and hundreds of firefighters and vehicles were arriving from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Serbia and Romania. Turkey’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.

Several other Balkan countries also struggled with wildfires. Water-dropping planes and helicopters from Cyprus, Germany and Slovenia were helping North Macedonia tackle blazes that have been burning for weeks, while Bosnian firefighters and local authorities appealed for international help to tackle fires raging in a national park in the east of the country.

The Athens blaze began Sunday afternoon near Lake Marathon, about 35 kilometers northeast of the city, and coursed across Mount Pendeli, descending into the city’s suburbs.

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.

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, while about 30 push alerts were sent to cell phones warning people in several Athens suburbs and outlying settlements to flee.

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 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.

Ten water-dropping planes and 10 helicopters were fighting the remaining flames Tuesday, backing up hundreds of firefighters on the ground, the fire department said.

Earlier in the week, the fire reached heights of about 25 meters. It 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.”

Meteorologists warned of the increased danger of wildfires because of weather conditions from Sunday until Thursday, and dozens of other wildfires also broke out in several parts of Greece on Monday.

The fire department said two teenagers were arrested Monday on suspicion of arson for allegedly deliberately setting a fire in the southern Athens suburb of Glyfada while firefighters battled 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 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 flames as they trekked through a forest in northeastern Greece and were caught by a massive blaze that burned for more than two weeks. [AP]