Wildfire raging near Athens damages homes and forces hospital evacuation

• On Wednesday morning, a wildfire raged in the mountainous Penteli region near Athens, burning homes and forcing authorities to order the evacuation of at least nine sites, including a hospital.
• The fire was fueled by gale-force winds.
• Around 1430 GMT on Tuesday, a fire on Mount Penteli, some 27 kilometres (16 miles) north of the centre of Athens, started.

On Wednesday morning, a wildfire raged in the mountainous Penteli region near Athens, burning homes and forcing authorities to order the evacuation of at least nine sites, including a hospital. The fire was fueled by gale-force winds.

Around 1430 GMT on Tuesday, a fire on Mount Penteli, some 27 kilometres (16 miles) north of the centre of Athens, started. Thick clouds of smoke covered the area.

The fire brigade stated that no casualties had been reported.

A total of 120 fire engines and 485 firefighters were sent to battle the wildfire, which was raging on numerous fronts. Even though they had stopped operations during the night for safety reasons, over seven helicopters and planes were dropping water on the flames.

Fire Department spokesman Yiannis Artopios said in a televised statement, “It was a challenging night,” adding that the wind speed was over 80 kph (50 mph).

“The fire changed direction constantly throughout the night due to the ferocity and speed of the winds, which made combating it in the middle of the night considerably more challenging,” he said.

According to local authorities, some residences in the Pallini region were destroyed by the fire. The fire department declined to corroborate the details. Nine areas, including Pallini and Gerakas, had to be evacuated, according to the authorities.

A hospital and Athens’ National Observatory had been shut down out of prudence. Traffic was stopped on roads heading to Penteli, and police assisted at least 600 locals in leaving the burned-out areas.

Up until Wednesday afternoon, forecasters called for further strong winds.

28 Romanian firemen, according to the fire department, are assisting local firefighters. During Greece’s warmest months of July and August, more than 200 firefighters and equipment from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Norway, and Finland will be on standby.

Around 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland were destroyed by flames last year as Greece faced its worst heat wave in 30 years.