Mandra

The fire in Mandra that had been burning for most of last week was reignited around noon on Sunday.

There are ground forces and two aircraft operating on the scene. They had been stationed in the area due to the high risk of fire on Sunday.

The authorities stopped traffic on the road connecting Elefsina to Thiva.

A firefighter helps an injured colleague outside at a village on the outskirts of Mandra in West Attica, on Wednesday, as a blaze raged for the third day in the broader vicinity, tearing through forests, pastureland, villages, farms and businesses. [Yiannis Liakos/InTime News]

Wednesday brought no respite to the hundreds of firefighters, volunteers, municipal workers and military personnel who spent all night battling major wildfires in West Attica and Corinthia - raging for a third day - and a new blaze on the southeastern Aegean island of Rhodes.

The wildfire raging in Dervenochoria, about 30 km north of Athens, is now threatening the town of Mandra (near Elefsina) and settlements around it, its mayor has said.

Christos Stathis, mayor of Mandra-Eidyllia, urged residents to evacuate as a precautionary measure in the face of the approaching fire front, which is estimated to be 20-kilometers long.

The residents of four parts of Dervenohoria in Viotia, northwest of Athens, were ordered to evacuate towards the West Attica town of Mandra on Tuesday as a wildfire started to approach homes and thick smoke filled the air.

Panorama, Pournari, Palaiohori and Agios Sotiras were being evacuated, as the blaze also crossed regional lines into Attica, heading towards Vilia and Oinoi.

The conclusions of a survey on income inequality in Greece have shown that low-income areas with poor living conditions and residents dwelling in smaller homes were more vulnerable and had higher Covid-19 mortality rates compared to more affluent municipalities with better housing and living conditions.

The Citizens' Protection Ministry and the Hellenic Police (ELAS) are concerned over the development of the pandemic in the region of Attica, as well as a defiant decision by the Orthodox Church to open churches to the faithful Wednesday, despite a government ban.

Authorities have extended a hard lockdown on the western Athens municipalities of Elefsina and Aspropyrgos until Wednesday, January 6, at 6 a.m., Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias told a press briefing on Tuesday, due to their heavy epidemiological burden.

Just a few days after the partial easing of restrictive measures to contain coronavirus cases, the pandemic has surged again in Western Attica, prompting immediate emergency action, with Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias announcing a ban on movement from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The trial of local authority officials accused of negligence in connection with the deadly floods that devastated Mandra, western Attica, in 2017, is to resume at an Athens misdemeanors court on Tuesday.