Wildfires torched scores of homes and thousands of acres of forest in the outskirts of Athens on Sunday and sent hundreds of residents fleeing their homes, authorities said, according to Reuters.
Thick plumes of smoke hung over the Acropolis as the flames, fanned by strong winds, raged unchecked for a second day, testing state resources and the conservative government, which is facing a snap election by March.
Hundreds abandoned their homes overnight as the blaze reached residential communities around Athens. Many were frantically trying to stop the flames from reaching houses with garden hoses and tree branches.
"We are facing a great ordeal," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said. "The fire department is making a superhuman effort."
The handling of the fire, the biggest since Greece's worst wildfires in living memory killed 65 people in a 10-day inferno in 2007, will be crucial for his political fate as snap polls loom. His government, which is clinging to a one-seat majority in parliament, trails the socialist opposition in opinion polls.
Greek authorities declared a state of emergency in eastern Attica on Saturday where the flames seared about 30,000 acres of forest, farming fields and olive groves.
"More than 120,000 stremmas (30,000 acres) have been burned. 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.
Hundreds flee wildfire torching homes near Athens
Wildfires torched scores of homes and thousands of acres of forest in the outskirts of Athens on Sunday and sent hundreds of residents fleeing their homes, authorities said.
