Salamis fires kill two and force evacuations near Athens

Two people died and hundreds were evacuated Sunday after two fires broke out on the Greek island of Salamis near Athens, the fire department said.

A fire department spokesman told AFP that two bodies were recovered from the Peristeria beach area in the south of the island. State agency ANA said nine people required medical care for burns.

Fire department deputy spokesman Yiannis Artopios told state TV ERT that hundreds of bathers and permanent residents were under an evacuation order. The civil protection ministry issued four evacuation orders in quick succession after fires broke out almost simultaneously in Peristeria and Selinia, two popular beach areas in the island's south and east, Artopios said.

Artopios described the situation as a difficult fire inside an inhabited area. Some roads remained open, with police guiding people to safety.

Salamis, just west of Athens, has about 37,000 residents, many of them elderly, and the beaches were full of people on Sunday, officials said.

Salamina deputy mayor Thodoris Zannis told ERT that local officials were trying to keep the fire in Selinia from scaling a mountain and linking up with the other fire. Officials said the fire was burning through pine forest and bush.

The fire service mobilised about 200 firefighters, nearly 50 engines, six aircraft and seven helicopters, with reinforcements brought from the mainland, Artopios said.

Greece's coastguard said it had sent seven patrol boats to the area, and several private vessels including ferries were being made available. Coastguard spokesman Theofanis Balatsoukas told ERT that around 90 people had been evacuated by sea and that the operation was proceeding smoothly. Artopios said two fire department vessels were also assisting.

The fire department said 34 fires had broken out across Greece over the past 24 hours. Firefighters had largely contained a blaze on the Aegean island of Skyros earlier, an AFP reporter said.

Greece has been hit by several major wildfires since late July, after largely escaping the heatwave temperatures that affected much of Europe earlier in the summer. The recent fires have been fuelled by unusually strong winds.

Five firefighters have died so far, including a Danish pilot killed in a mid-air collision between two Bell helicopters while battling a blaze near Athens earlier this month.

Winds were expected to ease later Sunday. The civil protection ministry said that on Monday, for the first time in 10 days, no area would be above level 3 on Greece's national fire risk scale, which runs to 5.

Greece is hit by wildfires every year. Experts say the risk is growing because of human-fuelled climate change, which has made droughts and other extreme weather events more severe.