Hundreds of firefighters are fighting a massive forest fire outside of Athens, which as of Monday remains out of control.
The fire, with flames reaching as high as 80 feet, began over the weekend. It tore through forests and towns, prompting evacuation orders for a number of suburbs of the Greek capital.
In Varnavas, Greece, a small town around 20 miles outside of Athens, residents had to evacuate quickly as the fire spread. “The village was surrounded in no time,” resident Katerina Fylaktou said. “It’s really windy. It was like if there were many fire fronts. It started from one point and suddenly the whole village was surrounded.”
The fire, accelerated by strong winds, has found ample fuel in the forests surrounding Athens, now tinder-dry after repeated summer heat waves and a dry winter in southern Greece.
Firefighters tried to get control of the blaze from the ground and from the sky, deploying 17 water-dropping planes and 16 helicopters. The fire burned along two main fronts, including in hard-to-reach mountainous terrain.
While summer fires are common in Greece, more severe heat and drought fueled by climate change have led to more frequent and more intense wildfires.
This video was produced by Tim McPhillips, Julia Griffin and Dan Cooney.
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