In Greece, the fire that approached Athens finally contained

A fire helicopter performs a water drop as a forest fire burns in the suburb of Pikermi in Athens, Greece, July 20, 2022. REUTERS - LOUIZA VRADI

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Greece, after the mobilization of several hundred firefighters for two days, the major fire that started on Tuesday north of Athens now seems under control.

Several villages and a hospital had been evacuated, but there is now no active front, according to relief.

In this summer period, caution is still required in Greece, especially after the violent fires of last summer.

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With our correspondent in Athens, 

Greece may have been spared so far by the heat wave that hit Western Europe this week, the fire that consumed the surroundings of Mount Penteli, about thirty kilometers north of Athens benefited from the favorable conditions offered by dry weather, in an area which has also been swept by powerful winds these days.

In addition to a series of evacuations and a few burnt houses, the flames notably caused an impressive plume of smoke, in the sky of the inhabitants of the northern suburbs of the capital.

In Greece, the summer period is traditionally marked by fires and outbreaks of fire.

But last year – on the occasion of what was described in the country as the worst heat wave for 30 years – these were particularly violent: more than 100,000 hectares had been burned.

The symbol of these 2021 fires in Greece is the

, northeast of Athens.

While the country was facing several simultaneous fires, as in Athens precisely as well as in the Peloponnese, the wooded part of northern Euboea was then very largely ravaged by fire.

Greece is therefore on its guard this year, the strongest heat of the summer is yet to come.

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• Greece

• Natural disasters

• Environment