Crews battle scattered fires in Athens suburbs, helped by calmer winds and reinforcements

Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters in Greece are battling scattered fires, hoping to end the major wildfire that burned into the northern suburbs of Athens, triggering evacuations and leaving at least one person dead. With strong winds that had fanned the flames on Sunday and Monday dying down overnight, the fire department said the fire no longer had any active, advancing fronts and firefighters were concentrating their efforts Tuesday on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of slow-burning areas. The European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service, which provides mapping services for natural disasters using satellite images, said that by Monday the blaze had burned 8,500 hectares (21,000 acres, 85 square kilometers).