Dramatic television footage showed desperate residents using water hoses as thick gray smoke billowed from beach resorts south of Athens, as firefighters in Greece scrambled to put out multiple fires amid hot, dry conditions.
Thousands of people fled their homes in villages south, west and north of the Greek capital Athens on Monday, and authorities evacuated scores from three children’s camps and a retirement home. Disturbing footage showed horses being led away from burning stables as other animals screamed in fear or pain.
On Tuesday, state television showed footage of burned houses and charred cars in seaside villages southeast of Athens, where an estimated 7,400 acres of forest had burned.
The water-dropping aircraft resumed their flight at first light after a night in which firefighters managed to partially control three of four large fires that had broken out south and west of Athens the previous day. A total of 20 aircraft are assisting the efforts of 250 firefighters to put out the large fire in Dervenohoria, 30 miles north of Athens, Greece’s fire service spokesman Yiannis Artopios told a televised briefing.
Evacuation orders were issued for several other villages in the region, he said, describing the fire in Dervenohoria as the most “active” and alarming.
Greece’s military is assisting firefighting and other rescue services efforts, as is the European Union. It dispatched four firefighting planes, the bloc’s commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, said. He said on Twitter.
Mr Artopios urged the country’s people to avoid any activities that could cause more fires, warning that the combination of dry conditions, strong winds and rising temperatures would make the coming days “very difficult”.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged people to leave the affected areas on Monday, saying saving lives was the priority and that losses would be compensated.
“We have fires, we have them now and we will have them in the future, and this is one of the consequences of the climate crisis, which we are living with more intensely,” he said in a message from Brussels. There he met other European leaders.
Mr Mitsotakis was set to return to Athens on Tuesday to oversee efforts to contain the fire, cutting short his trip to Brussels.
Although Greece’s first major heat wave of the year has eased somewhat in recent days, temperatures are forecast to worsen starting Thursday, with temperatures expected to reach 43 Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in Athens on Sunday.
To help mitigate against the intense heat, authorities are operating air-conditioned spaces where people can cool off in central Athens. Access to the Acropolis, the capital’s main landmark, was restricted to cool morning and afternoon hours last weekend, and similar measures are expected to be introduced later this week.
Officials said people whose houses were damaged in the fire would be accommodated in local hotels. And many animals rescued from shelters and stables near the fire are being cared for at centers in Athens.
