By Angelos Tsatsis and Karolina Tagaris
VARNAVAS, Greece/ATHENS (Reuters) -Residents fled their houses on Sunday as a fast-moving wildfire outdoors Athens fuelled by sizzling, windy climate burned bushes, homes and vehicles and despatched smoke clouds over the Greek capital.
Greater than 400 firefighters backed by 16 waterbombing planes and 13 helicopters battled the blaze that broke out at 3 p.m. (noon GMT) and rapidly reached the village of Varnavas 35 km (20 miles) north of Athens.
As night time fell, firefighting plane ceased operations till morning. Flames turned the sky orange.
“The situation remains dangerous as the fire is spreading between residences,” fireplace brigade spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis mentioned.
He mentioned the blaze unfold quick, “like lightning”, as a consequence of gale power winds. Flames as excessive as 25 metres swallowed up bushes and shrubland.
Varnavas is a sparely populated space with about 1,800 residents, in line with the most recent census.
“The village was surrounded in no time, in no time. It’s really windy,” resident Katerina Fylaktou informed Reuters. “It started from one point and suddenly the whole village was surrounded,” she mentioned.
Lots of of wildfires have damaged out throughout Greece since Might and scientists attribute their frequency and depth to the more and more sizzling and dry climate circumstances linked to local weather change.
After its warmest winter on report and lengthy durations of little or no rainfall, Greece additionally registered its hottest June and July and is forecast to report its hottest-ever summer season.
“We are expecting a very difficult week,” mentioned Kostas Lagouvardos, analysis director of the Athens Observatory. “If the Varnavas blaze is not contained during the night, we will have a problem tomorrow,” he mentioned.
Fires have additionally burned this summer season amid excessive warmth elsewhere in Europe, together with in Spain and the Balkans.
‘DANGEROUS CONDITIONS’
Authorities despatched evacuation alerts for 9 areas close to Varnavas. By early night, thick brown smoke hung over a lot of Athens and had reached the island of Aegina to its south.
One other blaze in a forested space close to the city of Megara, west of Athens, had been contained by Sunday afternoon, the hearth brigade mentioned.
A number of different areas throughout Greece had been on excessive alert for fireplace threat on Sunday and Monday.
On Saturday, Local weather Disaster and Civil Safety Minister Vassilis Kikilias mentioned he had known as for emergency measures involving the military, police and volunteers to take care of forest fires till Aug. 15.
“Extremely high temperatures and dangerous weather conditions will prevail,” he mentioned.
“Half of Greece will be in the red.”
In April, a European Fee report mentioned the 2023 wildfire season within the Europe was among the many worst this century.
