Quotes
Forest fire near you. Follow the instructions of the authorities,
said SMS messages sent to people in the Attica region, indicating in which direction to flee The fire spread very quickly because of the strong wind,
he told AFP near one of the hotspots in Grammatiko We're working 24-hour shifts, all of us,
said fireman Marinos Peristeropoulos The EU civil protection mechanism was activated upon request of the Greek authorities,
EU spokesman Balazs Ujvari said in a statement, (It ... It's) the first time ever 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 heard my animals bleating and dying,
Dimitris Megagiannis, a goat herder near Penteli, told Mega TV station 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 A school and homes are on fire, and I can see the fire coming towards the town hall,
We are facing a biblical catastrophe,
said Marathon's mayor Stergios Tsirkas Because of the direction of the wind we have decided on a precautionary evacuation,
Halandri mayor Simos Roussos told ERT Firefighters have been working at full tilt for months,
said Nikos Lavranos, head of Greece's main firefighters' union Even the helicopter that dropped water, you couldn’t see it,
Half of Greece will be in the red,
Kikilias said over the weekend as he warned of temperatures of about 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Despite a hard battle and the superhuman efforts overnight, the fire spread very fast and has reached Mount Penteli,
a fire brigade official told the Reuters news agency Right now the battle is being waged on two fronts: one in the area of Kallitechnoupolis and the other in [the village of] Grammatikos,
Its an extremely dangerous fire that we’ve been battling for over 20 hours in dramatic conditions because of the very strong winds and prolonged dryness,
the minister, Vassilis Kikilias, told reporters Our whole town is engulfed in flames and going through difficult times,
he told the Skai television channel Civil protection forces battled hard throughout the night, but despite superhuman efforts, the fire evolved rapidly,
fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said At this moment it has reached Mount Pentelicus and is headed in the direction of Penteli,
Throughout the night, winds remained strong, creating dangerous situations. Unfortunately their intensity is expected to increase in the coming hours,
Mr Vathrakogiannis warned