By Angelos Tsatsis and Karolina Tagaris

VARNAVA/ATHENS – Residents of the village of Varnava near Athens fled their homes on Sunday as firefighters tried to control a fast-spreading wildfire fueled by hot, windy weather that sent clouds of smoke billowing over the Greek capital.

More than 250 firefighters, supported by twelve firefighting planes and seven helicopters, fought the fire, which broke out at 3 p.m. and quickly reached the village, 35 kilometers north of Athens.

“The village was surrounded in no time, in no time. It’s really windy,” local resident Katerina Fylaktou told Reuters. “It started at one point and suddenly the whole village was surrounded,” she said.

Authorities issued evacuation warnings for five nearby areas. In the early evening, thick brown smoke hung over large parts of Athens and reached the southern island of Aegina.

Hundreds of wildfires have broken out across Greece this summer. After the warmest winter on record, the country has now experienced its hottest months in June and July. As elsewhere in the Mediterranean, scientists attribute the fires to the increasingly hot and dry weather caused by global climate change.

A European Commission report in April said the 2023 forest fire season in Europe would be one of the worst of the century. This month alone, fires raged in Spain, the Balkans and Greece in extreme heat.

Greek Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said the fire in Varnava had spread due to stormy winds.

Flames up to 25 meters high devoured trees and bushland.

Another fire in a forest area near the town of Megara west of Athens had been contained by Sunday afternoon, the fire department said.

In several other regions of Greece there was an increased risk of fire alarms on Sunday and Monday.

“We are expecting a very difficult week,” said Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the Athens Observatory. “If the fire in Varnava is not contained during the night, we will have a problem tomorrow,” he said.

When darkness falls, the firefighting aircraft stop their operations.

On Saturday, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said he had called for emergency measures involving the army, police and volunteers to fight the forest fires by August 15.

“There will be extremely high temperatures and dangerous weather conditions,” he said.

“Half of Greece will be in the red.”

In June and July, above-average temperatures were recorded on 57 of 61 days, said Lagouvardos. Greece is forecast to have its hottest summer ever.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications.