Greek firefighters fought massive wildfires that have been blazing unchecked for six days and have claimed 20 lives in vain on Thursday.
On Mount Parnitha near Athens, in the largest forest adjacent to the city, a severe fire raged on for a second day, endangering a national park.
A woodland ravine had a “explosion of fire” early on Thursday, according to fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios, renewing the threat to populated areas.
The largest front was in the north, where a massive fire that started on Saturday close to the port city of Alexandroupoli has since grown to be nearly 15 kilometers (9 miles) long.
This week, the bodies of 19 persons, two of whom were minors and thought to be migrants, were discovered nearby.
Officials have issued a warning that further casualties are likely to be discovered among asylum seekers who were unable to flee the flames because the area is a major entrance site for traffickers from the neighboring Turkish region.
A 1,000-year-old UNESCO-listed Byzantine monastery named Hosios Loukas narrowly averted destruction on Wednesday due to a third significant fire that broke out in Boeotia, north of Athens.
According to meteorologists, the hot and dry conditions that heighten the risk of fire will last until Friday.
Vassilis Kikilias, the minister of civil protection, stated on Wednesday that this summer’s wildfire activity has been the worst since fire-risk maps were implemented in 2009.
“It’s an unprecedented situation, this is not a figure of speech,” he said.
The fires have burned over 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) in northern Greece and another 5,000 hectares west of Athens, according to estimates from the national observatory of forest fires operated by Aristotle University in Thessaloniki.
