Firefighters battle 'extremely dangerous' wildfire near Athens

Athens: Hundreds of firefighters in Greece were battling a major wildfire Monday that broke out near Athens a day earlier and has raced through parched forest, destroying properties and prompting evacuation orders, according to authorities.

The fire started Sunday afternoon in Varnavas, a town less than 30 miles north of Athens by road, and spread rapidly within minutes because of high winds, Greece's national fire service said. In some places, the flames were more than 80 feet tall. A spokesperson for the fire service, Vassilios Vathrakogiannis, said that despite "superhuman efforts" to contain the fire overnight, it had spread "like lightning."

The "extremely dangerous" fire was still burning Monday on two major fronts, according to Greece's civil protection minister, Vassilis Kikilias, in Grammatiko, northeast of Athens, and Kallitechnoupoli, to the east of Athens. He added that strong winds and a protracted drought had created "dramatic conditions" for the more than 600 firefighters working to douse the flames.

The blaze is one of the worst to threaten Athens, the capital, this year in what has been a busy fire season for the country, in part because of a dry winter and an exceptionally hot summer.

Greece's civil protection authority placed several areas, including Athens, at "extreme fire risk" -- the highest level of risk in the country's five-tier system -- for Monday.

Fire reached Vrilissia, an affluent suburb north of Athens. Television footage showed thick smoke there and at least one person spraying water from the roof of a house in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

Greece appealed to European partners for help and is expecting aircraft from France and Italy, as well as 75 firefighters and 25 vehicles from the Czech Republic, the Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Ministry said in a statement.

Authorities have ordered at least a dozen communities to evacuate, and television footage Sunday showed motorists fleeing as flames lined the road near Varnavas. A children's hospital, a military hospital and two monasteries were also evacuated. Greece's Olympic sports complex, north of Athens, was opened overnight to house residents who had to abandon their homes.

There were no reports of casualties, though at least one firefighter experienced burns and several people were given first aid for breathing problems, a spokesperson for the fire service said.

The full extent of the damage to forestland and homes was not immediately clear.