Wildfire burns through northern suburb of Greece’s capital Athens and residents are told to evacuate

ATHENS Greece AP A wildfire burned through a northern suburb of the Greek capital of Athens on Saturday and selected residents were ordered to evacuate the country s Fire Institution announced Residents of the town of Kryoneri kilometers miles northeast of Athens received SMS messages to evacuate to safe areas Fire Function spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyannis communicated reporters Greek media have shown houses on fire The spokesman mentioned there have been reports of damages We will take stock when the fires have been put out The real difficulties are ahead of us Vathrakoyannis announced adding that Greece has questioned for six firefighting planes from the European Union s Civil Protection Mechanism On site firefighters and fire engines firefighting planes and seven helicopters are attempting to put out the fire whose origin is unknown Four ambulances are treating at least five residents bulk of them elderly with respiratory problems Temperatures reaching or exceeding degrees Celsius degrees Fahrenheit dry conditions and high winds are fanning the flames Under such conditions wildfires expand very briskly and become dangerous These conditions are expected to prevail over the coming days Vathrakoyannis announced The fire operation is also dealing with three other major fires in the southwest on Greece s two largest islands Crete in the south and Evia north of Athens and also on the island of Kythera northwest of Crete At least firefighters planes and helicopters are involved but can only operate in daylight In total wildfires broke out across the country over the past hours the spokesman disclosed Wildfires several of them destructive have become a common occurrence in Greece in fresh years Several have broken out in the past month