A rapidly spreading wildfire outside Athens caused by hot, windy weather burnt trees, houses, and cars and covered the Greek capital in clouds of smoke, Euractiv reported.
More than 400 firefighters supported by 16 water-jet aircraft and 13 helicopters fought the blaze, which broke out at 3 p.m. (midday GMT) and quickly engulfed the village of Varnavas, 35 kilometres north of Athens.
As night fell, firefighting aviation ceased operations until morning, but the situation remained dangerous, fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis informed. He said the blaze spread quickly, “like lightning”, due to gale-force winds.
The situation remains dangerous as the fire is spreading between residences.
Hundreds of wildfires have broken out across Greece since May. Scientists attribute their frequency and intensity to increasingly hot and dry weather conditions linked to climate change. After the warmest winter on record and a long period of no rainfall, Greece recorded its hottest June and July in history. The summer was forecast to be the hottest in the country’s history, Kostas Lagouvardos, research director of the Athens Observatory, said.
“We are expecting a very difficult week. If the Varnavas blaze is not contained during the night, we will have a problem tomorrow.”
Another fire in a forest area near the town of Megara, west of Athens, was contained by midday Sunday, the fire brigade reported. The authorities declared a high level of wildfire alert in several other regions of Greece on Sunday and Monday.
Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Saturday he had called for emergency measures involving the army, police, and volunteers to fight the wildfires until 15 August.
Extremely high temperatures and dangerous weather conditions will prevail. Half of Greece will be in the red.
In April, a European Commission report stated that Europe’s wildfire season in 2024 would be one of the century’s worst.
