Greek firefighters battle wildfire at resort near Athens

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities ordered outlying parts of a coastal resort town near Athens evacuated late Monday after a large wildfire broke out in the area.

Media reports said a few houses on the outskirts of Nea Makri, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) northeast of the Greek capital, had suffered fire damage, but no injuries to residents or firefighters were reported.

The fire service said more than 110 firefighters were struggling through the night to contain the blaze, assisted by fire trucks and volunteers, while all firefighting units in the greater Athens area were placed on alert. As the fire broke out after dark waterbombing aircraft were unable to help in the effort.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

Much of central and southern Greece suffered widespread damage from wildfires in August that ravaged forests and destroyed hundreds of homes on the island of Evia and on the northern fringes of Athens. The blazes followed days of the country’s worst heat wave in decades, which left the countryside parched and tinder dry.

In the summer of 2018, a very fast moving wildfire tore through the coastal resort of Mati, close to Nea Makri, destroying dozens of buildings and killing 102 people.

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