Satellite images of East Attica in Greece have revealed the extent of the damage caused by wildfires , triggering evacuations and leaving at least one person dead.
The flames, which reached heights of 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.
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 37-43mph.
The blaze began Sunday afternoon near Lake Marathon, about 22 miles northeast of Athens , coursed across Mount Pendeli and descended onto the northern and northeastern suburbs of Athens.
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Stergios Tsirkas, the mayor of the historic town of Marathon, warned on Monday it was facing a “biblical catastrophe”.
“Our whole town is engulfed in flames and going through difficult times,” he told Skai TV.
The town’s seven thousand people were moved to safety as the fire advanced on Athens, just over 25 miles to the southeast.
“We are facing a biblical catastrophe,” Mr Tsirkas added.
Summers in Greece have long been marked by wildfires but hotter, drier weather linked to climate change have made blazes more frequent and intense.
The southeastern Mediterranean country this year experienced its warmest winter on record and is on track for its hottest ever summer.
Large areas of Greece, including the location of this week’s blaze, have seen little or no rain for months.
Greece is on high fire alert at least until Thursday with temperatures forecast to reach up to 40C.
Reinforcements in the form of water-dropping aircraft, firefighters and vehicles have been dispatched from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Serbia and Romania.
Firefighters found the burned body of a woman in an industrial building in the suburb of Vrilissia at 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.
Six water-dropping plans and six helicopters took off at first light on Tuesday, the fire department said, to back up the hundreds of firefighters on the ground.
Dozens of homes and businesses were reported to have burned, although authorities do not yet have an exact number.
Authorities said some people who refused to leave their homes later became trapped and required rescuing, endangering the lives of firefighters. The affected areas — at the closest, some nine miles from the heart of Athens — typically have thousands of residents.
Last year, wildfires in Greece killed more than 20 people, including 18 migrants who became trapped by the flames as they trekked through a forest in northeastern Greece and were caught by a massive blaze that burned for more than two weeks.
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