Fires rampage through forests in Greece; thousands evacuated

One of the massive fires threatened the Greek capital’s most important national park and sent choking smoke across the Athens region, where authorities set up a hotline for residents with breathing problems. Thousands of residents and vacationers in areas where fires broke out days ago have fled by land and by sea.

Wildfires rampaged through some of Greece’s last remaining forests for yet another day Saturday, August 7,2021, encroaching on more inhabited areas after burning scores of homes, businesses and farms during the country's worst heat wave in three decades. One of the massive fires threatened the Greek capital’s most important national park and sent choking smoke across the Athens region, where authorities set up a hotline for residents with breathing problems. Thousands of residents and vacationers in areas where fires broke out days ago have fled by land and by sea. In apocalyptic scenes overnight and into Saturday morning, ferries evacuated 1,153 people from a seaside village and beaches on Evia, an island of rugged, forested mountains popular with holidaymakers and campers, after approaching flames cut off all other means of escape. People clutched babies and carried elderly people on chairs as they boarded the small ferries to safety.