Wildfire rages northwest of Athens unabated, burns homes
[1/4] A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire burning near the village of Pournari, Greece, July 18. REUTERS/Louiza Vradi
Summary Wildfire rages uncontrolled for second day north of Athens
Strong winds rekindle flames in Loutraki area
PM cuts short trip to Brussels, returns home
Greece requests help from EU countries
MANDRA, Greece, July 18 (Reuters) - A wildfire swept uncontrolled through a forest and towns northwest of Athens for a second day on Tuesday, forcing more residents to flee their homes as authorities fought to stop the flames reaching an area with oil refineries.
The active fire front extended over 8 km (5 miles), officials said, damaging homes around the town of Mandra, which was blanketed by dense smoke.
"We are living a nightmare," Mandra mayor Christos Stathis told Open TV. "Houses and properties are on fire."
In 2017, Mandra, a largely industrial area, was hit by flash floods that killed 24 people.
Traffic was suspended on two national roads connecting Athens with the cities of Elefsina and Corinth, where oil refineries operate.
A shipyard in the town of Neos Pontos, near Mandra, had been destroyed, state ERT TV said. Earlier a thick column of smoke rose into the sky after an explosion, a Reuters witness said.
Authorities have urged residents in the area to head to Elefsina. Police assisted the evacuation of more than 300 people, a police official told Reuters.
The blaze, which broke out on Monday in the region of Dervenochoria, about 30 km north of Athens, spread fast as it was fanned by erratic winds and reached Mandra, west of the capital, on Tuesday, forcing people to flee and burning houses.
Greece's recently re-elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cut short his trip to Brussels, where he had been attending an EU-Latin America summit, earlier on Tuesday, to return home and monitor more closely the operation.
More than 250 firefighters assisted by volunteers, 75 fire engines, 11 aircraft and nine helicopters battled the fire.
Firefighters managed to contain other blazes southeast and west of the Greek capital, but some fronts were still active and flames were sporadically rekindled by strong winds.
The vice governor of the Corinth region, west of the capital, said that at least 30 houses were severely damaged by the fire on Monday in Loutraki. The blaze had not been brought under control, a fire brigade official said.
Another fire was tamed on Tuesday, having first broken out on Monday in the village of Kouvaras, about 27 km southeast of the Greek capital. That fire had quickly spread to the coastal towns of Anavyssos, Lagonisi and Saronida.
A local mayor told Greek television that more than 7,000 acres of land was reduced to ashes along the coast, where many Athenians have holiday homes.
Four Canadair water bomber aircraft from Italy and France were expected to land at the Elefsina military airport later on Tuesday, the civil protection ministry said in a statement. Foreign firefighters were also assisting the efforts.
The Greek meteorological service has warned of a high risk of fire this week, just as the country is recovering from the first major heatwave of the summer. A second heatwave was forecast for later this week.
Authorities warned that Greece would also be hit by near gale force winds in the coming days.
Greece still has memories of a wildfire disaster in 2018, when a blaze killed 101 people in the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens.
Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Stamos Prousalis, Angeliki Koutantou, Alkis Konstantinidis, Renee Maltezou and Michele Kambas; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Sharon Singleton and Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source: Reuters
