Two large fires broke out on Sunday on the outskirts of Athens, forcing authorities to evacuate thousands of people, while hundreds of firefighters struggle to contain the flames amid strong, gusty winds. The fire that most worries authorities is the one that broke out near Varnava, a sparsely populated town (1,800 inhabitants) about 40 kilometers north of the capital and which is spreading rapidly to the southeast. The other fire started in a wooded area near the city of Megara, west of the capital.
More than 400 firefighters, backed by 16 aircraft and 13 tanker helicopters, have been trying to contain the spread of the Varnava fire, which broke out at 3 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Spanish time) and forced the authorities to preemptively evacuate the population of seven towns, where some 4,000 people live. “The situation is dangerous because the fire is spreading between residences,” said the spokesman for the fire department, Vassilis Vathrakogiannis. In fact, some houses far from the towns were devoured by the flames, while a special police team had to free dozens of people who were trapped in about 25 cars trying to escape the fire and another four residents were taken to a nearby hospital with respiratory problems, according to the News247 website.
Vathrakogiannis said the fire had spread quickly, “like lightning,” due to strong winds. The flames, which reached a height of 25 metres, devoured trees and bushes. “It started in one spot and the village was surrounded in no time. It is very windy,” Katerina Fylaktou, a local resident, told Reuters. A huge cloud of smoke has reached the centre of Athens and darkened the sky over the capital.
Meanwhile, some 70 firefighters with 18 trucks, five planes and three tanker helicopters were battling another large fire near the town of Megara, some 40 kilometres west of Athens, a blaze that has forced authorities to evacuate the village of Neo Mazi. “Some houses have already burned down, while others are in danger,” Megara mayor Panagiotis Marguetis told private radio station SKAI 100.3.
About 40 fires have broken out in Greece in the past 24 hours, most of which were extinguished before they spread, the fire brigade said. “We expect a very difficult week,” said Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the Athens Observatory. According to him, Greece experienced the warmest winter on record in 2024, with long periods of little or no rain and the hottest July since records began in 1960. The average temperature was 27 degrees Celsius, 2.9 degrees above the average for the same month between 1991 and 2020.
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While current temperatures are normal for the season, extreme heatwaves in the country in June and July, with temperatures in some regions, including Crete, exceeding 44 degrees, have dried out vegetation, increasing the risk of forest fires.
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