Hundreds of firefighters continued to battle for a third day a fierce blaze that broke out Sunday afternoon in a town northeast of the Greek capital.
The body of a woman believed to be around 60 years old, was found inside a factory building in Patima Halandriou, part of a municipality of over 70,000 people that was partly evacuated on Monday, state news agency ANA said.
Television footage showed several cars gutted by fire and the roofs of stately homes burning as water-bombing helicopters roared overhead.
In scenes never before seen in Athens, residents wearing masks against the choking smoke were desperately dousing their homes with water hoses in the leafy suburbs of Nea Penteli and Vrilissia in an effort to render them less vulnerable to fire.
“(It’s) the first time the fire has come here,” said Melina Kritseli, 40, a civil servant living in a two-storey white house in Patima Halandriou, another Athens suburb that was evacuated.
“I took my children to a friend’s house to be safe,” she told AFP as her husband hosed the ground and grass outside their house.
Greece on Monday formally called for EU assistance, a spokesman said.
“The EU civil protection mechanism was activated upon request of the Greek authorities,” EU spokesman Balazs Ujvari said in a statement, adding that Italy, France, the Czech Republic, and Romania were sending units to help.
“We stand with Greece as it battles devastating fires,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.
