Hundreds of firefighters battle violent wildfires near Athens, as Greece requests European help

(LONDON) — Firefighters in Greece detected and fought some 44 wild blazes in the 24 hours leading up to Monday evening, curbing all but eight of them in their “initial stage,” the Greek Fire Service said in a release late Monday.

The wildfires, which come amid extreme heat, have been cropping up throughout the country since at least Saturday, officials said. Greek officials on Monday asked the European Commission for help battling the fires, according to a notice published by the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre.

Hundreds of firefighters had been working to stop fast-moving wildfires Monday near Athens, with tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders in the region, emergency officials said. Those fires have burned some 6,600 hectares, or about 25 square miles, in the East Attica region, European officials said.

Government officials had warned of heightened risk for fire in several areas, including the Athens peninsula and the region north of it. The fire risk category in those areas had been raised to “extreme,” weather officials said in a statement released Sunday.

Calmer winds were helping firefighters near Athens get the upper hand on a number of fires burning in the suburbs, but winds were expected to pick on Tuesday evening.

In the next 48 hours, “the fire danger forecast is expected from high to very extreme across most of central Greece,” the Emergency Response Coordination Centre said.

European countries were sending assistance, including firefighters and vehicles. Italy was sending two planes, and France was sending a helicopter, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said on Monday. Teams of firefighters were on their way from Czechia and Romania, she said.

Temperatures near Athens were expected to climb on Tuesday to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with daily highs expected to be over 95 degrees for the remainder of the week, according to the Hellenic National Meteorological Center.

Dozens of blazes were burning Monday along the edges of a fire that broke out in Varnavas on Sunday afternoon, Col. Vassilios Vathrakogiannis, of the country’s fire service, said in a statement on Monday.

More than 700 firefighters and nearly 200 vehicles were working with the Civil Protection agencies, he said. Eighteen helicopters and 17 other firefighting aircraft had been in use since the Varnavas blaze began spreading.

“The local investigative offices, as well as units of the Directorate for Combating Arson Crimes (D.A.E.E.), are investigating the causes of the fires,” the Greek Fire Service said in a statement.

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