Death Toll in Athens Wildfire Touches 79: Greek Fire Brigade

A firefighter sprays water on the wildfire in the town of Mati, east of Athens, July 23, 2018.

(Photo: AP)

At least 79 people have been killed in wildfires burning close to Athens since Monday, a Greek fire brigade official said on Wednesday.

At least 187 people, including 23 children, have been injured. The number of missing persons was still unclear.

The number outpaces the death toll of 2007, one of the worst on record, where about 70 individuals died from fires in the southern Peloponnese region.

Mati doesn’t even exist as a settlement anymore. I saw corpses and burned-out cars. I feel lucky to be alive.

Local resident, in a statement to Greece’s Skai TV

Burned cars seen outside a damaged house in Rafina, east of Athens. Tuesday, July 24, 2018. 

Mati is in the Rafina region which is a popular retreat with local tourists, particularly pensioners and children at holiday camps.

One of the youngest victims was thought to be a six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation.

A Reuters witness earlier saw at least four dead, on a narrow road clogged with cars, heading to the safe haven of a nearby beach. Hundreds of people had scrambled to the sea as the blaze closed in close to the shore. They were picked up by passing boats.

Some parts of Mati were still smouldering with white smoke early on Tuesday. Burned-out cars were scattered outside gated compounds where three and four-storey buildings bore signs of fire damage.

A plane flies over the smoke and fire coming the town of Mati, east of Athens on Monday, July 23, 2018. 

We are dealing with something completely asymmetric.

Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister, Greece

Greece issued an urgent appeal for help to tackle fires that raged out of control in several places across the country, destroying homes and disrupting major transport links.

Cyprus and Spain offered assistance after Greece said it needed air and land assets from European Union partners.

Headlines such as “killer fire” and “hell” dominated the front pages in the country and newspapers reporting fears the death toll would climb.

Authorities said they would be making use of an unmanned drone from the United States on Tuesday, 24 July, to monitor and track any suspicious activity.

Tsipras and Greek officials have expressed misgivings at the fact that several major fires broke out at the same time.

Wildfires are not uncommon in Greece, and a relatively dry winter helped create current tinder-box conditions. It was not immediately clear what ignited the fires.

Reuters witnesses reported seeing a hillside of homes gutted by flames east of Athens. A mayor said he saw at least 100 homes and 200 vehicles burning.

Buildings burn in the town of Mati, east of Athens on Monday, July 23, 2018.

In a fire earlier Monday, 23 July, Greek authorities urged residents of a coastal region west of Athens to abandon their homes as a wildfire burned ferociously, closing one of Greece's busiest motorways, halting train links and sending plumes of smoke over the capital.

The main Athens-Corinth motorway, one of two road routes to the Peloponnese peninsula, was closed and train services were cancelled.