Rafina

It was a summer afternoon when we took a ferry to return from the island of Andros to the port of Rafina last year. On the way back in the car we noticed what we thought was a beautiful sunset. However, after turning on the news, we realized that "the beautiful sunset" was actually a wildfire happening in Mati, close to the port of Rafina.

The summer holiday exodus picked up on Friday as thousands of city folk headed to their villages and the beach, inundating the Greek capital's ports, ahead of the August 15 national holiday that is considered the peak of the summer season.

Tourists with backpacks walk toward their ferry at the port of Piraeus on Friday. The country's biggest port saw a fresh wave of departures by both foreign visitors and Athenians heading to the islands of the Aegean for their summer holidays. A total of 30 ferries left Piraeus on Friday, with another 16 departing from Rafina and seven from Lavrio.

Water-dropping aircraft aided efforts on the ground Tuesday afternoon to douse a fire that broke out in Rafina, eastern Attica. Another blaze that broke out in Varnavas, near Marathonas, also taxed firefighters.

Two boys sit on a climbing frame at the official opening of a restored playground in Pefkonas, on the outskirts of the east Attica port town of Rafina, on Friday.

Nearly a year after disastrous wildfires ravaged eastern Attica, killing 103 people, Greek authorities have drafted a plan aimed at curbing the unchecked construction in the area that allowed the blazes to spread so quickly and protecting coastal settlements.

A smiling boy is depicted in a mural at the 1st Primary School of Rafina, in a photograph released Thursday. The mural is dedicated to the 103 people who died in disastrous wildfires that ravaged Mati and other parts of eastern Attica last July. In a statement Thursday, conservation group WWF Hellas pointed to dangerous shortfalls in the country's forest fire protection system.

NBA sensation Yiannis Antetokounmpo has quietly proposed to donate the money required for the construction of an indoor basketball arena at fire-ravaged Mati at Rafina, eastern Attica, the local mayor revealed on Sunday.

Crews from Greece's electricity distribution agency DEDDIE were called in to restore power to the area around Athens's Syntagma Square on Monday afternoon after a medium-voltage power line stopped working due to bad weather, the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency reported.

Following seven months of investigations into the deadly fires that killed 100 people and destroyed parts of eastern Attica last July, prosecutors on Tuesday brought charges of negligent arson, negligent manslaughter and grievous bodily harm through negligence against 20 current and former state officials.