Firefighters in Greece make progress in fighting forest fire

Penteli, GreeceGreek firefighters made progress Tuesday in battling a wildfire that has been raging in the suburbs of Athens for three days, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

A firefighters’ spokesman told AFP that “there are pockets of flames” but that there are no longer “areas of particular concern.”

The body of a Moldovan woman was found on Tuesday morning inside a burnt-out factory in Halandri, near Athens, and at least 71 people, including five firefighters, needed medical attention for the fire.

“We are in a better situation at the front,” Costas Tsigkas, head of the Greek firefighters’ association, told state television ERT early Tuesday.

Hundreds of firefighters, with some 200 trucks and nine aircraft, were deployed to combat the blaze that started on Sunday in the municipality of Varnavas, about 35 kilometers northeast of Athens.

Fanned by strong winds, the worst wildfire to hit Greece this year has burned buildings and vehicles across more than 10,000 hectares of the outskirts of the Greek capital that it has devastated.

According to the Greek Civil Protection, around 100 homes were seriously damaged.

Responding to a request for international help from the Greek government, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia and Turkey sent hundreds of firefighters, helicopters, trucks and planes to extinguish the fire, authorities said.

“Everything burned down”

Despite the deployment of firefighters, the flames on Monday rose up Mount Pentelicus, which dominates the city, and advanced through the suburbs of the capital where tens of thousands of people live.

Authorities have issued dozens of evacuation orders to residents in the region and several sports halls, including the Olympic Stadium in Athens, have been set up to accommodate displaced people.

The mayor of Halandri told ERT that he saw nearly a dozen houses destroyed by the fire in his town. “The fire travelled 50 kilometres and changed direction 10 times,” said Simos Roussos.

The mayors of Penteli and Varnavas, where the fire started, also reported dozens of homes destroyed in these areas.

The Interior Ministry agreed to distribute 4.7 million euros (5.1 million dollars) among the eight affected municipalities.

“Never in a million years did I think a fire would come here,” said Sakis Morfis, 65, in front of his burned-down house in Vrilissia, a town outside Athens.

“We have no clothes, no money, everything has burned” inside the house, she lamented.

With much of the capital shrouded in acrid smoke for two days straight, scientists reported an alarming rise in dangerous particles in the air, especially between Sunday and Monday night.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the organization was “prepared to help meet the urgent health needs of affected communities.”

“Every day we receive a reminder of the climate crisis,” he wrote in X.

The risk of fires remains very high on Wednesday, especially in northern Greece, firefighters warned in a statement.

“Unanswered Questions”

The handling of the fire sparked criticism of the conservative government by the press in this country, which is particularly vulnerable to such events.

“Enough is enough,” cried the front page of the centrist daily Ta Nea, Greece’s best-selling newspaper. The liberal daily Kathimerini noted that the “out of control” fire “has left widespread destruction and unanswered questions.”

“Evacuate Maximou,” said the leftist daily Efsyn, referring to the building that houses the Prime Minister’s office in Greece.

Many other newspapers, including the pro-government Eleftheros, spoke of a “nightmare”.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cut short his holiday in Crete to return to the capital on Sunday. “We are doing our best to improve every year, but unfortunately the conditions are becoming more difficult,” he said after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Around 200 people demonstrated outside parliament on Tuesday evening. “They burned us! Government, ministers, you are responsible for this crime,” read one banner.

This new incident has brought back memories of the fires of July 2018 in Mati, a coastal area near Marathon where 104 people died in a tragedy later attributed to errors and delays in evacuations.

The current fire season in Greece has seen almost daily fires break out in the country, which recorded its warmest winter and hottest June and July since reliable data collection began in 1960.

Scientists warn that fossil fuel emissions are exacerbating the duration, frequency and intensity of heatwaves around the world.