Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Residents flee as fire rages at Marathon, near Athens

Reuters: A wildfire fanned by strong winds raged near Athens on Monday, damaging homes and sending residents fleeing, fire brigade officials said.

Reuters witnesses said the blaze had damaged at least three homes at a hamlet by the town of Marathon - the site of the historic 490 BC battle between Athenians and Persians about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of the Greek capital.

"The flames have reached homes, but we don't know yet how many are threatened," said a fire brigade official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

About 50-60 people were evacuated from their holiday homes in the area, according to a police official. Live television footage showed a thick cloud of black smoke billowing into the air as the fire consumed low vegetation....

The dam at Lake Marathon in Greece, shot by Vitaly, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

No comments: