Greece Battles Wildfires for Fifth Day in 'Nightmarish Summer'

ATHENS - Flames swept through a town near Athens overnight and hundreds of people were evacuated by ferry from the island of Evia as wildfires burned across Greece for a fifth day Saturday.

On Evia, east of the capital, a fire that began Tuesday quickly burgeoned into several fronts, ripping through thousands of hectares (acres) of pristine forest across the northern part of the island and forcing the evacuation of dozens of villages. More than 400 wildfires broke out in the last 24 hours, with the biggest fronts still burning in Evia, the second-biggest Greek island, and areas in the Peloponnese including Ancient Olympia, the site of the first Olympic Games. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called it a "nightmarish summer," adding the government's priority "has been, first and foremost, to protect human lives."