New fire breaks out in Keratea near Lavrio port in Eastern Attica

Fire officials said appeared to deliberately set in Keratea in Greece’s East Attica province led to an emergency 112 alert sent to residents, advising them to flee their homes, a new breakout after hundreds of fires around the country earlier had finally been put under control.

An elderly woman with disabilities was missing, local officials said and at least 10 houses were damaged by the blaze with traffic being halted at the Keratea-Lavrio highway near the scene.

Some 71 firefighters and 25 fire engines were sent to the area of Markati on Aug. 1 to battle the blaze, said Kathimerini, as well as six water-dumping aircraft and four helicopters, after the New Democracy government had been criticized for its response to the plague of some 586 earlier fires.

The wildfire that broke out on Monday in Keratea, Attica region, has taken big dimensions while damages to houses that are scattered in the area have been reported. Three settlements have been evacuated, Markati, Synterina, and Aghios Konstantinos.

Traffic in the area has been interrupted and specifically in several parts of the old Lavrio-Keratea road.

Fire in Vilia; evacuation of settlements

The settlements Aghia Paraskevi and Kryo Pigadi in the wider area of Vilia, Αttica region, were evacuated on Monday after residents received a message.

According to the 112 emergency number message, all residents in the settlements of Aghia Paraskevi and Kryo Pigadi had to evacuate their residence and move towards Psatha and Alepohori due to a fire raging in the area.

The residents of Aghios Georgios and Palaiochori had earlier received a similar message.

Greece has been roiled by hundreds of wildfires for about two weeks, with the blazes destroying tens of thousands of hectares of forest and farmland, burning homes and businesses and leading to the evacuation of dozens of villages. One volunteer firefighter has died, and four have been hospitalized, including two in critical condition in intensive care units.

The fires stretched Greece’s response capabilities to the limit, leading the government to appeal for international help. About 24 European and Middle Eastern countries sent firefighters, helicopters, planes, and vehicles. By Monday most had left, although 40 Austrian firefighters remained in the southern Greek region of the Peloponnese, where two major fires have been burning for several days.

Several Mediterranean countries have suffered intense heat and quickly spreading wildfires in recent weeks, including Turkey, where at least eight people have died, and Italy. In Algeria, wildfires in the mountainous Berber region have killed at least 69 people.

Worsening drought and heat have also fueled wildfires this summer in the Western United States and in Russia’s northern Siberia region. Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events.

Two major fires which began in early August, one on the island of Evia and one in a national park north of the Greek capital, were still smoldering Monday, with firefighters deployed to secure their perimeters, the fire department said.