\n<\/p>\n
Greek official says \u2018real difficulties\u2019 ahead as dry conditions and high temperatures are expected to persist.<\/em><\/p>\n A wildfire has burned through a northern suburb of the Greek capital of Athens, leading to the evacuation of some residents, the country\u2019s Fire Service has reported.<\/p>\n Residents of the town of Kryoneri, 20km (12.5 miles) northeast of Athens, received three text messages on Saturday to leave for safe areas, Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyannis told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been reports of damage. We will take stock when the fires have been put out,\u201d\u00a0 the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Greek media outlets showed houses on fire.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real difficulties are ahead of us,\u201d Vathrakoyannis said, adding that Greece has asked for six firefighting planes from the European Union\u2019s Civil Protection Mechanism.<\/p>\n On site, 145 firefighters and 44 fire engines, 10 firefighting planes and seven helicopters are attempting to put out the fire, whose origin is unknown. Four ambulances are treating at least five residents, most of them elderly with respiratory problems.<\/p>\n Temperatures reaching, or exceeding, 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), dry conditions and high winds are fanning the flames.<\/p>\n Under such conditions, which are expected to persist in the coming days, wildfires \u201cexpand very quickly and become dangerous\u201d, Vathrakoyannis said.<\/p>\n The fire service is also dealing with three other major fires in the southwest of Greece\u2019s two largest islands \u2014 Crete in the south and Evia north of Athens \u2014 as well as on the island of Kythera, northwest of Crete.<\/p>\n At least 335 firefighters, 19 planes and 13 helicopters are involved, but can only operate in daylight. In total, 52 wildfires broke out across the country over the past 24 hours, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Wildfires, many of them very destructive, have become a common occurrence in Greece in recent years. Several have broken out in the past month.<\/p>\n Heatwaves and dry conditions, which scientists link to climate change, have become more frequent across the world in recent years.<\/p>\n Last month, temperatures reached as high as 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) during a heatwave in southern Europe.<\/p>\n \u201cWith climate change leading to warmer temperatures and drier conditions and the increasing urbanization of rural areas, the fire season is starting earlier and ending later,\u201d the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.<\/p>\n \u201cWildfire events are getting more extreme in terms of acres burned, duration and intensity, and they can disrupt transportation, communications, water supply, and power and gas services. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greek official says \u2018real difficulties\u2019 ahead as dry conditions and high temperatures are expected to persist. A wildfire has burned through a northern suburb of the Greek capital of Athens, leading to the evacuation of some residents, the country\u2019s Fire Service has reported. Residents of the town of Kryoneri, 20km (12.5 miles) northeast of Athens,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[5992,872,5951,2631,150,5104,5994,5993,2315,2627],"class_list":{"0":"post-12404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-athens","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-evacuate","11":"tag-greece","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-residents","14":"tag-spread","15":"tag-suburb","16":"tag-told","17":"tag-wildfires"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}