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

Firefighters in Greece continued to battle scattered fires on Tuesday, hoping to contain the remains of the major wildfire that had burned into the northern suburbs of Athens, triggering multiple evacuations and leaving at least one person dead.

Strong winds fanning the flames on Sunday and Monday had died down overnight, and the fire department said the blaze no longer had any active, advancing fronts and that firefighters were concentrating their efforts on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of slow-burning areas.

Reinforcements of water-dropping aircraft and firefighters were arriving from abroad after Greece 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 (21,000 acres or 85 square kilometres).

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’”, Mr Yumakli posted on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Relations between neighbours Greece and Turkey are frequently tense over territorial disputes, but they tend to put differences aside and send each other help when faced with natural disasters such as earthquakes and forest fires.

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 on Sunday afternoon near Lake Marathon, about 22 miles (35km) northeast of Athens, crossed 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 was believed to have been an employee who became 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 afternoon.

At least 30 push alerts were sent to mobile phones in the area warning people in several Athens suburbs and settlements further from the city 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 nine miles (15km) from the heart of Athens — typically have thousands of residents. But it was unclear how many were away on holiday 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 on Tuesday, backing up hundreds of firefighters on the ground, the fire department said.

Earlier in the week, the fire reached heights of about 25 metres (80 feet). It raced through pine forests left tinder-dry by repeated heatwaves 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 on 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 fuelling bigger and more frequent blazes.