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Hundreds of firefighters are battling a massive wildfire for the second day in a row Monday that has been driven by strong winds. arrived at the gates of Athens and forced authorities to evacuate tens of thousands of people, including patients from two hospitals, he told the agency. EFE Fire department representative.

About 700 firefighters are working in the area using 183 trucks, 17 aircraft and 15 tanker helicopters. They extend along a front of about 30 kilometers.This was reported by the Minister of Civil Protection of Greece, Vasilis Kikilias, speaking to the press.

“This is an extremely dangerous fire.“We fought against it for more than 20 hours in dramatic conditions,” Kikilias said.

He also explained that the combination of strong winds, prolonged drought and “complex and inaccessible terrain morphology in dense forest” complicate the extinction tasks.

The fire that arose the day before near the city of Barnabas, About 40 km north of Athens, it quickly spread south overnight, reaching the outskirts of the town of Penteli, just 15 km north of the capital.

“The wind is very strong and Neither the morphology of the terrain nor the vegetation help us, “It’s mostly pine and holly, which burn quickly,” he said. EFE Firefighter representative.

Until now, The firefighter was transferred to a nearby military hospital with second degree burns on his arms and legs, while Five citizens were transferred to another hospital with respiratory problems.

The authorities ordered this on Monday evacuation of ten cities south of Mount Penteli, which joined more than 15 towns evacuated further north on Sunday.

In total, it is estimated that More than 35,000 people were forced to leave their homesalthough the number could have been much higher, since the area also contained many summer residences of Athenian citizens.

Currently, the main fronts are located near the town of Gramatiko, approximately 40 km north of Athens, as well as the coastal town of Nea Makri and the town of Dioni to the east of the capital.

During the night and this morning, special teams of the Greek police rescued about 250 people trapped Most are in their homes in the affected areas, the SKAI station reports.

Also Two hospitals had to be evacuated. one for children and one for the military, as well as two monasteries.

The flames burned down several houses, At the same time, authorities in some cities report a lack of air and ground resources to combat them.

“We need air assets, we have been requesting them since this morning and have not seen anything yet.Things are very ugly, “There are houses that could burn down,” said Gramatiko community chairman Spyros Zagaris.

The smoke from the fire reached to the city of Kalamata, on the Peloponnese peninsula, about 200 kilometers southwest of Athens, local media reported.

Meteorologists predict that temperatures will reach maximum 36 degrees in the metropolitan region of Attica, and that strong winds will persist.

(EFE)