Athens locals flee as fires rage 雅典火灾，居民被迫撤离

Several thousand residents of Athens' northern suburbs have evacuated² their homes as several wildfires continue to blaze around the Greek capital.

希腊首都附近发生几起严重的大火，雅典北部郊区上千居民从家中撤离。

Almost the entire population of Agios Stefanos, 23km (14 miles) north-east of Athens, fled by vehicle or on foot.

Multiple fires have been burning across an area some 50km wide, fanned by strong and unpredictable winds.

The fires - the worst since those in 2007 which killed about 70 people - are being called an environmental disaster.

Firefighting efforts were suspended as darkness fell on Sunday, with several major blazes still burning into the night, although no casualties（人员伤亡） have been reported.

Although the fires had reportedly retreated from the capital's suburbs and were burning mainly forest land, unpredictable winds meant populated areas were still at risk.

"The constant shift in the wind's direction is rekindling³（重点火） the flames," fire brigade（消防队） spokesman Giannis Kapakis told Reuters news agency. "We must all remain calm through this night."

Dozens of homes were burnt down and a state of emergency was declared in the Athens area.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said the country was facing "a great ordeal⁴" but praised the emergency services for making "a superhuman effort".

Italy, France and Cyprus have sent aircraft to help the hard-pressed Greek fire crews.

'Too late'

Police with loudspeakers went through Agios Stefanos earlier on Sunday telling residents to head immediately to Athens.

"We had been begging the authorities since early in the morning to send forces," said Panayiotis Bitakos, the area's deputy mayor（副市长）. "It is too late now. Too late."

The fires are reported to have begun late on Friday near the site of a planned waste disposal facility in Grammatiko, near the ancient town of Marathon.

They spread rapidly across the hills outside Athens, burning through forests, olive groves⁵ and encroaching on suburbs.

The fires grew larger over Saturday and spread to Varnavas. By Sunday morning, houses were burning in the Athens suburbs of Drafi, Pikermi and Pallini.

Overnight, fires also crested⁶（有顶饰的，有冠毛的） the top of Pendeli, a hilly, northern suburb with a panoramic⁷ view（全景） of Athens, setting houses alight.

Much of Pendeli mountain was laid waste in 2007, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.

Three of the four mountains surrounding the capital have already been stripped of their trees by previous fires and further erosion（腐蚀，侵蚀） of the forest cover would be devastating⁸, our correspondent adds.

'Great ordeal'

Hundreds of firefighters and soldiers - backed by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping water - battled the fires but they were too numerous and widespread to contain, our correspondent says.

A regional Athens governor, Yiannis Sgouros, told Greek television that more than 30,000 acres of land had been burnt, in what he described as "an ecological⁹ disaster".

While many residents of the threatened areas followed instructions to evacuate¹, others stayed behind to try to defend their homes.

Two children's hospitals, a summer camp and a psychiatric clinic（精神病治疗所） have been evacuated.

The fires have left a thick haze¹⁰ of smoke hanging over much of Athens.

Other fires are burning in the central Greek region of Viotia, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, which has already been hit by fires this summer, and on the Aegean islands of Skyros and Evia.

In July, dozens of fires burnt through thousands of hectares（公顷） of land in Greece, Spain, France and Italy.

According to the conservation group Greenpeace, heat waves and drier conditions are leading to larger and more uncontrollable forest fires across the whole Mediterranean¹¹ region.