Greece. Apocalyptic scenes. Smoke plumes over Athens, evacuations

The largest fire this year in Greece broke out on Sunday near the town of Varnavas, 35 kilometres north of Athens. Despite the rapid intervention of firefighters, the fire spread overnight to the nearby Pentelikon mountain range, and on Monday flames appeared on the outskirts of Athens.

The fire continued to spread, fanned by a dry, gusty wind. Firefighters reported Tuesday morning that the flames had spread farther into the capital than they had in more than 20 years. The blaze was fought by 700 rescuers and countless residents, trying to save their belongings from the elements.

According to Kathimerini, firefighters were battling a fire in the town of Vrilisia at night. After midnight, a charred body of a woman was found in one of the burned buildings.

Evacuations were necessary in towns in the path of the flames, including patients and staff from three hospitals. Local media estimated that dozens of homes had burned down. There were power outages in parts of the Greek capital as the fire charred power lines.

The lack of electricity also threatens residents of other cities. On the island of Syros, located near Athens, power outages have disrupted the operation of water desalination plants, which could cause problems with water distribution in the coming days.

Greece has requested assistance from partners through the EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC). The EU Civil Protection Mechanism said on Monday afternoon that two firefighting planes from Italy, one helicopter from France and ground teams from the Czech Republic and Romania have been mobilised from the rescEU reserve to support Greece.

The spokesman for the Chief Commander of the State Fire Service, Karol Kierzkowski, said on Monday that Polish firefighters were monitoring the fire situation in Greece and informed that assistance had been offered in the fire extinguishing operation.

“Polish firefighters have sent an offer of rescue assistance in the form of a module for extinguishing forest fires without the use of fire trucks, consisting of 40 firefighters with five tons of rescue equipment,” he wrote on the X portal.