By AccuWeather meteorologist
Updated Aug. 4, 2021 8:09 PM EDT
Dozens of wildfires have ignited across Greece this week, including one right outside of Athens that forced thousands of residents to flee their homes amid an extreme heat wave that has baked southeastern Europe.
The fire sparked in the Tatoi Forest at the base of Mount Parnitha and quickly spread into the towns of Tatoi and Varibobi, suburbs of Athens, on Tuesday afternoon, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
According to The AP, authorities have announced that more than 100 homes and businesses have sustained major damage or have been destroyed. Of the people who evacuated, more than 500 people spent Tuesday night in hotels being used for shelters. Some residents were rescued by the coast guard after fleeing to a beach in the village of Rovies.
"We are making a titanic effort on many fronts," Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said during an evening briefing Wednesday. "According to our threat forecasts, tomorrow too is expected to be a difficult day ... The toughest part lies ahead of us, the next days and weeks will be even harder. Our key target is to protect human lives."
A statue of goddess Athena is seen as wildfire burns at Varympompi, a suburb north of Athens, Greece, Aug. 3, 2021. REUTERS/Giorgos Moutafis
Firefighters used whatever means necessary to battle the blaze. Water was pumped out of a swimming pool and water-dropping buckets were attached to military helicopters, the AP stated.
This fire also encroached on a palace once owned by Greece's former royal family. While flames damaged parts of the grounds, none of the buildings suffered fire damage, according to the AP.
Residents in the capital city of Athens were warned to close windows and stay indoors as smoke from the nearby wildfires spread into the city, according to CNN. In addition to poor air quality, the smoke also reduced visibility in the city at times.
Over 500 firefighters worked through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, local time, to try to control the blaze.
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“It was another exceptionally difficult night,” Hardalias said, according to the AP. He added that firefighters were able to reduce the fire from four active fronts to just one Tuesday night.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said crews did vital work fighting the nightmarish fires. "We had no loss of human life... Homes will be rebuilt, and over time the forest will grow back,” he added.
Officials stated that 188 wildfires were reported in a span of just 24 hours across Greece.
According to the AP, the European Union (EU) has pledged to send firefighters and equipment to countries across the southern portion of Europe battling fires, including Greece, Italy, Albania and North Macedonia.
On Wednesday, the Netherlands Ministry of Defense announced that they would send two Chinook transport helicopters to Albania during the second half of the week to help contain ongoing fires.
A man down a road in the fire-devastating Sirtkoy village, near Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021. More than 100 wildfires have been brought under control in Turkey, according to officials. The forestry minister tweeted that five fires are continuing in the tourist destinations of Antalya and Mugla. (AP Photo)
Turkey has also been dealing with a severe wildfire season this summer, and according to the EU Atmosphere Monitoring Service, the intensity of the wildfires was the highest since records began being kept in 2003.
The fires that happened this year never happened in our history," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in a televised interview. "This is the largest (outbreak)."
Fires have scorched large portions of southwest Turkey during the end of July and the start of August. At least eight people have been killed by the flames, while many others have suffered injuries, according to Reuters.
Among the dead are two firefighters who were killed on Saturday, CNN reported, citing Turkey's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry.
Over 100 fires across Turkey during the past week have already been contained, though a number of fires in southwestern parts of the country remain out of control.
One of the fires burned near the popular resort community of Bodrum, which led to the evacuation of over 1,000 people by boat as the flames neared the coast. A fire in Marmaris also crept toward the coast on Monday. On Wednesday, these fires spread to a coal-fired power plant in the area, Reuters reported.
Environmentalists have raised concerns over if the fire spread to the plant's coal storage unit, but according to a reporter with Demiroren news agency, tanks with flammable materials at the plant had been emptied as a precaution, and ditches had been dug to deter the flames.
in other news:
The setup that led to the intense heat across southeast Europe included a strong area of high pressure that has remained over the Balkans, allowing a heat dome to form, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Alyssa Smithmyer.
Much of eastern Europe had temperatures average 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit (3-6 degrees Celsius) above normal for the month of July. During this time, parts of southern Greece and southwest Turkey reported no rainfall.
"A deficit in rainfall from dry weather earlier in the summer exacerbated the temperatures further as the dry surface heated up much more easily than what moist soil would," Smithmyer said.
Temperatures in parts of Athens neared 110 F (43 C) on Tuesday. The current record for continental Europe stands at 118.4 F (48 C); that temperature record was set in Athens on July 10, 1997, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Due to the extreme heat, authorities in Greece closed the Acropolis and other ancient sites during afternoon hours, the AP reported. The closures were in effect from noon to 5 p.m., which is typically the hottest part of the day.
According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Rob Richards, the heat will linger across southeastern Europe through Thursday, but temperatures are not expected to be as intense by Friday as a front pushes into the region.
"Sofia, Bulgaria, will be a good 15 degrees or so cooler on Friday as compared to Thursday, and there will be an outside chance of a shower or thunderstorm as well due to a front moving through," Richards stated. "Athens will dip by into the middle 90s by this weekend as slightly cooler air settles in behind this front."
However, forecasters say showers and thunderstorms will struggle to spread south into Greece and Turkey, which will provide little help for firefighters battling the flames across the region.
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