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Thousands evacuated near Greek capital Athens as major wildfire rages out of control
Thousands of people living around Athens fled their homes on Monday, including in the historic town of Marathon, as a huge wildfire front crept closer to the Greek capital despite “superhuman” efforts to contain the blaze, officials said.
Authorities ordered at least five more communities and two hospitals northeast of Athens to leave after eight nearby villages, including Marathon, were told to evacuate on Sunday.
Costas Baltas/Anadolu via Getty Images
Marathon Mayor Stergios Tsirkas said the town, which gave its name to the long-distance race that is the centerpiece of the Olympics, was facing a “biblical catastrophe”.
A 20-mile-long wall of flames, more than 80 feet high in places, was moving toward Athens, the ERT public broadcaster reported.
The smell of smoke drifted through Athens’ center as thick grey clouds engulfed Mount Pentelicus, also known as Mount Pentelikon, which looms above the capital and is known for producing the marble used in the Acropolis and other ancient buildings.
Eight people have been hospitalized with respiratory problems and authorities opened the Olympic stadium in northern Athens to house those fleeing.
“Civil protection forces battled hard throughout the night, but despite superhuman efforts, the fire evolved rapidly,” fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said.
“At this moment it has reached Mount Pentelicus and is headed in the direction of Penteli,” he added.
A children’s hospital and a military medical facility in Penteli were evacuated at dawn, Vathrakogiannis said.
The destruction revived memories of the Mati disaster, the coastal area near Marathon where 104 people died in July 2018 in a tragedy later blamed on evacuation delays and errors.
The summer wildfire season in Greece this year has seen dozens of daily blazes after the Mediterranean country recorded its warmest winter and the hottest June and July since reliable data collection began in 1960.
Temperatures around Athens are forecast to peak at 102 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, with wind gusts of up to 31 miles per hour.
More than 670 firefighters with 183 vehicles and 32 aircraft were battling the blaze, the spokesman said.
“Forest fire near you. Follow the instructions of the authorities,” said SMS messages sent to people in the Attica region, indicating in which direction to flee.
Marathon’s 7,000 residents were told to head for the coastal town of Nea Makri.
“We are facing a biblical catastrophe,” said Marathon’s mayor. “Our whole town is engulfed in flames and going through difficult times,” he told the Skai television channel.
Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias had warned Saturday that half the country was under a high-risk warning for fires due to high temperatures, wind gusts and drought conditions.
On Monday, he said the fire that broke out on Sunday afternoon near the town of Varnavas spread even though a water-bombing aircraft reached the area in just five minutes.
“We’re working 24-hour shifts, all of us,” said fireman Marinos Peristeropoulos.
“The fire spread very quickly because of the strong wind,” he told AFP near one of the hotspots in Grammatiko.
Scientists warn that human-induced fossil fuel emissions are worsening the length, frequency and intensity of heatwaves across the world.
The rising temperatures are leading to longer wildfire seasons and increasing the area burnt in the flames, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Other parts of Europe are also struggling with high temperatures this week.
In Rome, temperatures were expected to reach 38 Celsius Monday and remain around 36 Celsius this week.
In the southern Netherlands, temperatures between 32 and 35 degrees Celsius are expected, made worse by high humidity.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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