Smoke over the capital
Fire department unable to stop inferno near Athens
Just a few kilometers northeast of the Greek capital Athens, firefighters are battling countless sources of fire over an area of around 200 square kilometers. According to the authorities, the front is almost 30 kilometers long. One woman died in the flames. Her body was found by the fire department in a factory building.
Meanwhile, the fires have been contained in many places. Late in the evening, a fire department spokesman said that there were still active sources of fire, but that they were under control for the time being.
No all-clear yet
There are still new outbreaks, and the wind is expected to pick up again during the course of the day. The EU disaster mechanism was activated due to the enormous scale of the fires, which had spread into a 30-kilometre-long front driven by the wind. Help is coming from the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Serbia, Romania and Turkey, among others.
Small pockets of fire
There is now no longer a continuous wall of flames, but rather a series of smaller active pockets of fire, a fire department spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Greek news agency ANA during the night. Meanwhile, the large-scale operation is continuing.
The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon north of Athens and quickly developed into the largest forest fire of the year in Greece. According to experts, this is the first time a major fire has come so close to the capital. On Monday afternoon, the flames were only about eleven kilometers away from the city center.
A video from an airplane shows the scale:
The situation will remain extremely dangerous in the coming days, the civil defense announced. In most regions of Greece, it has not rained properly for months.
Thousands evacuated
At times, firefighters battled the flames, which were fanned by strong winds over an area of around 200 square kilometers and were estimated by the authorities to be almost 30 kilometers long. Thousands of people had to leave their homes, some buildings fell victim to the flames and several firefighters were injured.
According to the report, the civil defense issued a new statement on Monday evening, according to which the emergency services are now concentrating on the fires in Daou Pentelis, Palea, Nea Penteli, Dionyssos, Vrilissia and Afidnes. Several countries have sent aid workers to Greece.
Hundreds of forest fires since May
Hundreds of forest fires have broken out across Greece since May. While this is not uncommon in Greece during the summer, exceptionally hot and dry weather associated with climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of fires, according to scientists. After the warmest winter ever recorded and a long period of extremely low rainfall, Greece is now heading for the hottest summer since records began.
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