'Where are we going to go?' Residents flee as fires reach Athens suburbs
The Peninsula
Athens: Yorgos Papaioannou spent four hours using a garden hose to try to save his newly-built home from a blazing wildfire, until police patrolling his suburb north of Athens ordered him and his girlfriend to leave.
By then, the fire at the foothills of Mount Parnitha had ripped through acres of lush forest, prompting the evacuation of town after town in the area and forcing thousands of people to flee with the few belongings they could save. "Our business, our home, all of our property is there. I hope they don't burn," Papaioannou, 26, said on Friday, sitting in a parking lot with his girlfriend as ash fell around them from the smoke-filled sky.More Related News