> Aftermath of major wildfire on fringes of Athens as reduced winds offer respite
Aftermath of major wildfire on fringes of Athens as reduced winds offer respite
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Description
Clean up operations were underway on Tuesday after a major wildfire that burned into the northern suburbs of the Greek capital, triggered multiple evacuations and left at least one person dead.
With strong winds that had fanned the flames on Sunday and Monday dying down overnight, the fire department said the blaze no longer had any active, advancing fronts and firefighters were concentrating their efforts on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of scattered, slow-burning areas on Tuesday.
Authorities were racing to extinguish as much of the blaze as possible ahead of Tuesday afternoon, when winds were predicted to pick up again, with a forecast of gusts reaching up to 60-70 kilometers (37-43 miles) per hour.
Reinforcements in the form of water-dropping aircraft, firefighters and vehicles were arriving from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Serbia and Romania.
The blaze that began Sunday afternoon near Lake Marathon, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Athens, coursed across Mount Pendeli and descended onto the northern and northeastern suburbs of Athens.
Firefighters found the burned body of a woman in an industrial building in the suburb of Vrilissia just after midnight.
The woman was believed to have been an employee who became trapped inside the building in an area that had been under evacuation orders.
More than a dozen people were treated by paramedics, mostly for smoke inhalation, while five firefighters suffered light burns and breathing problems, the fire department said.
The flames, which reached heights of about 25 meters (80 feet), were fanned by strong winds that hampered the efforts of more than 700 firefighters and nearly three dozen water-dropping planes and helicopters on Monday.
The wildfire raced through pine forests left tinder-dry by repeated heat waves this summer.
June and July were the hottest months ever recorded in Greece, which also recorded its warmest winter ever.
An early start of the fire season this year has strained Greece’s firefighting force.