Athens wildfires shock residents the wildfires spread fast throughout the region in Greece. Image: (Xinhua)
(The Post News)- Wildfires have become an occurrence that happens yearly in Greece, but none of these wildfires have reached so close to Athens.
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Emergency crews were dispatched to work through the night to extinguish the fire, which had started on Sunday afternoon close to the town of Varnavas.
It has been reported that over 700 firefighters, 200 vehicles, and 35 water-bombing aircraft were dispatched to extinguish the blaze.
By Monday, blazes were confirmed in 40 different locations, with some areas seeing flames as high as 25 meters.
Residents in Athens found it shocking how fast the fire had spread.
Despite the fire crews’ efforts to extinguish the fire, they were aided immensely by the dying-down wind on Tuesday, which has reached up to 65 kph over the weekend.
The Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in Greece said the fire hazard threat level was set to level 4 out of 5 on Tuesday and is forecast to fall to level 3 on Wednesday for the Athens region, but is expected to rise again on Thursday.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece’s prime minister, came under fire for his handling of the disaster-harrowing pictures revealing that the real trail of devastation had killed a woman and forced thousands of residents to be evacuated.
Several residents were shocked at how close the fire came to central Athens, stating that they had been caught unaware.
After the fire broke out, it has been reported that the fire tore through 400 square kilometres of forests in the Attica region and up to the suburbs of Athens.
The mayor of the Kifisia municipality, Vasilis Xypolitas, said that at some point, the fire went faster than the cars and that on the mountain there were no roads to stop the trucks or fight the actual fire.
Greece is on high alert as temperatures are expected to soar to 40 °C nationwide. Although most wildfire fronts have been extinguished, extreme weather increases the risk of flare-ups, particularly around Athens, where firefighters continue to battle scattered fires.
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