Greece battling wildfires amid high winds

ATHENS: Greece was battling several wildfires on Sunday, with smoke covering parts of the capital Athens in a haze, amid warnings for extreme weather conditions for the rest of the week.

By Sunday afternoon, firefighters had quickly dealt with 33 out of the 40 blazes that had broken out in the past 24 hours, fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told the press at an emergency briefing.

But the force was battling seven more were still raging on what was shaping up to be an extremely difficult day´s work for the force in the high Mediterranean summer heat, he said.

The country´s minister for civil protection had warned a day earlier that half the country was under a high-risk warning for fires due to high temperatures, wind gusts and drought conditions.

In the region of East Attica, a blaze in the town of Varnavas was raging in an area with scattered houses, emitting so much smoke that the capital Athens glowed red at one point on Sunday afternoon.

A force of 250 firefighters backed by 67 vehicles, 12 firefighting aircraft and seven helicopters was deployed to battle the flames, which “in many cases reached more than 25 metres high”, Vathrakogiannis said.

As the fire was threatening dwellings the Greek army was on hand to help with their efforts, he added.