Athens city engulfed in wildfires

ATHENS (Reuters) – A fire raging in northern Athens grew in intensity overnight from Monday to Tuesday, officials said, as firefighters managed to bring other blazes to the southeast and west of the Greek capital under control.

A wildfire is raging in the Dervenokoria region, 30 km north of Athens, firefighters announced on Tuesday as local media reported a pig farm was at risk from both.

Another fire, which broke out on Monday in the village of Kouvros, southeast of Athens, was subsiding after homes were evacuated in the coastal towns of Anavissos, Lagonisi and Saronida.

But according to a Greek fire official, 230 firefighters were still on duty in various places in the region, with the aid of 76 trucks and five helicopters.

“The civil defense forces gave everything they could during the night-long fighting,” Ioannis Artopoios, a spokesman for the fire department, told Greek television.

The mayor of one town said on television that more than 7,000 acres of land had been washed ashore along the coast, which is popular with Athenians during the holidays.

A thick cloud of white smoke was visible from Athens after the third epidemic broke out in Lutraki, 80 km from Athens.

Greeks remember the devastating fire of 2018 that killed 101 people in the city of Mati, east of the Greek capital.

(Reporting by Angelique Coutantou; French version Zifan Liu; Editing by Kate Entringer)