Wildfires outside Athens have forced thousands to flee resort towns, closed highways and ravaged holiday homes, as high winds drive flames through hillside brush and forests pines parched by days of extreme heat.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for at least six seaside communities as two major wildfires moved closer to summer resort towns and wind gusts reached 70 kph (45 mph).
The army, police special forces and volunteer rescue workers freed pensioners from their homes, rescued horses from a stable and helped monks flee a monastery threatened by flames.
Before nightfall, water-dropping planes and helicopters battled the flames near Lagonisi, about 40 km (25 miles) southeast of the capital. The second major forest fire broke out in a wooded area near the resort town of Loutraki, about 90 km (55 miles) west of Athens, where a children’s summer camp and rehabilitation center for elderly people were evacuated, local officials said.
Fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios said the strong, shifting winds and mountainous terrain in which the two fires broke out were slowing firefighting efforts.
“Conditions are constantly changing and that has to match our response. We have ordered several evacuations,” he said. Evacuees congregated along the coastline or were housed in schools and hotels, while coastguard ships were dispatched to smoky seafronts to help if needed.
During a visit to Brussels, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described the risk posed by the fires this month as “extremely difficult” to manage.
“We have always had forest fires and we always will. But with the effects of the climate crisis, we are experiencing fires with increasing intensity,” Mitsotakis said, speaking on the sidelines of talks between leaders of the European Union and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Greater Athens and much of southern Greece were on the second highest alert level for wildfires on Monday and Tuesday after a four-day heat wave subsided over the weekend. More scorching temperatures are expected later in the week.