Fire Service

Wildfire season got off to a roaring start in Greece on Monday, with two large fires burning southeast and west of the capital Athens, forcing seaside resort evacuations.

Staff and patients - including a woman in labor - had to be evacuated after a fire broke out in a medical clinic in the northern port city of Thessaloniki on Tuesday morning.

The Fire Service responded to the blaze in the city center in force, ordering the immediate evacuation of the facility and closing off surrounding streets to traffic and pedestrians.

A wildfire that broke out near the town of Aliveri, on the island of Evia, north of Athens, was still active Friday morning.

A 75-year-old man has been arrested for smoking out beehives at the site where the fire started, Fire Service spokesman Yannis Artopoios told reporters.

Two wildfires broke out on Thursday in separate incidents on the island of Lesvos, in eastern Greece, and the region of Ilia, in the western Peloponnese. 

The Fire Service said it had sent 22 firefighters with four vehicles and two water-dropping aircraft near the semi-mountainous settlement of Antissa, in western Lesvos. 

A wildfire broke out on Friday on Samos, very close to the village of Mytilinioi, in the center of the eastern Aegean island, 16 km from the capital Vathy, engulfing a rugged forest area in flames.

A fire broke out on Thursday near the village of Mortia, in the southern slope of Mount Pelion, the Fire Brigade said.

The blaze started in a forest area and no houses are currently at risk, it added. 

The Fire Service said it has sen 59 firefighters, two aircraft and a helicopter the area.

The association of volunteer firefighters for the Attica region, EDASA, is putting together its team this summer for Mount Parnitha and has issued an invitation calling on the public to "give a little bit of their time to protect Attica's last lung." 

A large wildfire broke out in a forested area northeast of the city of Larissa, in central Greece, the Fire Service said on Monday.

The blaze is located near the village of Kypselohori. 

Units of the Fire Service are on their way while it has also requested the assistance of aerial means to limit the spread of the fire. 

An expert testifying on behalf of the families of the victims of the deadly fire in Mati, east Attica, in the summer of 2018 is expected to testify for a second day on Monday, after delivering a scathing assessment of the authorities' response on Friday.

A high school in northern Greece was evacuated on Thursday morning after a fire broke out on the ground floor.

The students, who were in class when the fire started, were told to gather in the yard outside.

Five firemen with two fire engines arrived at the 3rd general high school of Kozani and managed to extinguish the flames before they spread to the rest of the building.