Hundreds flee wildfire burning homes near Athens

Wildfires burned scores of homes and thousands of acres of forest near Athens as flames raged out of control for a second day on Sunday, sending huge clouds of smoke over the Greek capital, authorities said, Reuters reported.

Hundreds fled their homes overnight as the blaze reached residential communities around Athens overnight, fanned by strong winds. Others were frantically trying to stop the flames from reaching houses with garden hoses and tree branches.

Greek officials and eyewitnesses said the fire had reached the suburbs of Aghios Stefanos, Anthoussa, Pallini, Pikermi and Dionyssos and that there were people refusing to leave their property as flames approached.

"The situation is worsening on an area in Aghios Stefanos and things are difficult in Anthoussa. There are homes on fire," eastern Attica prefect Leonidas Kouris told Greek television.

The fire broke out late on Friday in a village about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of the Greek capital and, fanned by strong winds, spread to neighbouring villages and northern suburbs of Athens.

Greek authorities declared a state of emergency in eastern Attica on Saturday where the flames seared about 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) of forest, farming fields and olive groves.

"More than 120,000 stremmas (30,000 acres) have been burnt. It is an ecological disaster," Athens prefect Yiannis Sgouros told Greek television.

Greece has asked its allies for help and five fire fighting aircraft from Italy, France and Cyprus were expected to arrive on Sunday, fire officials said.

The fire brought back memories of 2007, when Greece's deadliest wildfires in living memory raged for more than 10 days on the Peloponnese peninsula and Evia island, killing 65 people.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis made a helicopter tour of the afflicted area on Sunday. He chaired a meeting at fire brigade operations centre in Athens late on Saturday for the second time in less than 24 hours and urged people not to panic.

"What we need above all is to stay calm," Karamanlis said after the meeting. "It would be wise to obey the instructions of the people in charge."

A children's hospital and a home for the elderly were evacuated.

Police and witnesses said scores of homes were heavily damaged but the fire brigade declined to give official data for the damage until the blaze was put out.

Twelve aircraft, eight helicopters, 130 fire engines and 592 firefighters were trying to battle the blaze, fire officials said. Some 340 soldiers were also dispatched to the fires.

Gale-force winds have fanned more than 100 blazes across Greece in the last three days. Fires also raged on the islands of Zakynthos, Evia, Skyros, and the central Greek Viotia area. A fire on the Dodecanese island of Rhodes was under control.

Wildfires are frequent in Greece in the summer, often caused by high temperatures and winds, drought or arson. Hundreds of fires raged across southern Europe in July, destroying thousands of hectares of forest and gutting dozens of homes.