Firefighters evacuated children of the SOS Children’s Village facility as wells as 120 seniors from a nursery home in Vari, south-eastern Attica, Friday noon after the area was blanketed in smoke from a nearby wildfire. The evacuation was ordered as precaution measure and both children and seniors were transferred to other facilities in areas with much cleaner air.
The fire broke out around 9 o’ clock in the morning in an area with low vegetation very close to Vari-Koropi highway and it was fanned by the strong winds.
25 firefighters with 10 trucks and one helicopter were deployed to extinguish the blaze.
The fire service has closed to traffic a section of the Vari-Koropi highway.
Short after 1 o’ clock the fire was under control.
The Greek Civil Protection has issued warnings for wild- and forest-fires risk for Friday, July 10 and Saturday, July 11, 2020.
Warning Friday
At “Very High Risk” (Level 5) are the areas marked “orange”: Attica, Viotia, Evia, SKyros, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Ikaria and the Cyclades islands.
Warning Saturday
At “High Risk” (Level 3) are the areas marked “yellow”: Attica, East Sterea, Corinth, Argolida, Evros, North and South Aegean and Crete.
Every summer wild-a dn forest fires burn down thousands of hectares, often with human losses.
