Emergency services are said to be the main source of fire for climate change.
Hundreds of firefighters battled a wildfire on the west side of the Greek capital Athens for the third day, and brought a major firefight as the weather improved.
With the help of 16 planes and an army, more than 270 firefighters hit the fire on Mount Geraneia, which officials say is “one of the strongest” for years.
Speaking to ANT1 television station on Saturday, firefighter Stefanos Kolokouris said good weather allowed firefighters to pose a major risk by the end of Friday, but there were “large and scattered” fires.
No one was injured, but several homes were damaged or destroyed and 12 villages and settlements were evacuated.
Euthymios Lekkas, a professor of natural resources at the University of Athens, said the fire, 90 kilometers from Athens, has burned more than 55 square kilometers (21 square miles) of pine forests and other areas, some of which are agricultural.
“It is a major natural disaster that requires action to prevent landslides and floods in the autumn,” he told ERT television.
The extent of the damage, especially to farmers, will only become apparent when fires are brought under control, the National Security Agency said.
It said the blaze started late Wednesday near the village of Schinos near the Loutraki resort on the Corinthian Gulf, apparently by a man burning plants in an olive grove.
Smoke from a fire consumed Athens and the ashes that fell from the sky. It was the first fire in the forest that season.
Greece faces forest fires every summer, due to the dry weather, hurricanes and temperatures that often rise above 30 C (86 Fahrenheit).
In 2018, 102 people died in coastal areas of Mati, near Athens, in Greece’s worst fire accident.
