Athens, Jun. 5, (dpa/GNA) – The Greek fire services brought a wildfire under control along the coast near Athens in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Hundreds of local residents had to leave their homes in the upmarket Ano Voulo suburb in the south of the capital due to clouds of thick smoke, the emergency services said. Several houses were damaged in the flames, but no injuries were reported.
The emergency services deployed 300 firefighters with 65 vehicles and two firefighting helicopters.
“This summer will be very difficult because of climate change,” Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides told state television.
As many as 61 fires erupted across the country on Saturday, according to a fire services spokesman, as temperatures rose across the region, reaching 36 degrees Celsius in Athens. The heat was accompanied by high winds.
Large fires in the summer of 2021 devastated the forests to the north of Athens and almost a quarter of the forests on the second-largest Greek island of Euboea. Firefighters were called in from a number of other European countries to help combat the blazes.
Firefighters from six European countries are to be stationed in Greece this summer to contain wildfires in a programme funded by the European Union, Greek state television reported.
GNA