Firefighters are battling two large fires in Greece. One has burned near the suburbs of the capital city of Athens where it has moved into a residential area.
A second fire at the southern tip of the Peloponnese in the Laconia area is being pushed by strong winds. Three villages were evacuated and scores of people fled to the beach where the Coast Guard and other vessels were attempting to evacuate them, but those rescue efforts were being hampered by rough seas.
One of seven air tankers working on the Lakonia fire had to make an emergency landing but the two pilots were not hurt, fire officials said.
Εικόνα που μας έστειλε αναγνώστρια,τραβηγμένη από τον Πύργο Απόλλων http://t.co/iTAanOY6xM (φ: Χ.Βασιλοπούλου) #fire pic.twitter.com/1QcmYBQRji
— naftemporiki.gr (@naftemporikigr) July 17, 2015
Google translated the text in the above tweet (which is a photo of the fire near Athens): “Picture sent by our reader , pulled from the Tower Apollo go.naft.gr/MszUzv ( F : Ch.Vasilopoulou )”
Satellite image of the smoke plumes: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/18921