A fire ripped through the foothills of Mount Parnitha, the largest forest adjoining the capital, and is threatening to spread to its national park.

The Greek capital woke up on Wednesday to the smell of scorched earth and thick black smoke covering the sky.

Fires have already destroyed homes and properties in the nearby suburb of Hasia and Fyli and are threatening the suburb of Menidi.

“Unfortunately, the wind does not help at all,” Stathis Topalidis, deputy mayor of Menidi, told state broadcaster ERT.

On Tuesday, authorities ordered the evacuation of Ano Liosia, a district of over 25,000 people in northwest Athens, even though several stayed at their houses trying to protect their properties.

Another big blaze was still raging at a landfill in the industrial zone of Aspropyrgos, west of Athens.

Flames continued to spread unchecked for a fifth day in the northeastern region of Evros, close to the Turkish borders, and in Alexandroupolis and Dadia Forest, home to rare birds of prey.

More evacuations were ordered in the region overnight.

Blazes were also raging on the islands of Evia and Kythnos in the region of Boeotia, north of Athens, and in western Greece.

Another fire that broke out on Tuesday on the island of Samothraki was contained overnight, but the island remains without electricity.

Over 40,000 hectares were destroyed in wildfires in just three days from Aug. 19 to 21, according to a report by the National Observatory of Athens.

The very hot and dry conditions, which increase the fire risk, will persist until Friday, according to meteorologists.

On Tuesday, 18 suspected migrants were found dead in a forest fire near the Turkish border north of the northeastern port city of Alexandroupolis.

The dead included two children, a police official said.

As no local residents had been reported missing, “the possibility that they are people who entered our country illegally is under investigation”, fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios said in a televised address.

The area is a frequent entry point for irregular migrants.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou expressed her deep sorrow.

“We must urgently take effective initiatives to ensure that this bleak reality does not become the new normality,” she said in a statement.

The latest deaths pushed the overall toll from this week’s fires to 20.

Another suspected migrant was found dead in the area and an elderly shepherd was found dead north of Athens on Monday.

“Greece is witnessing an unprecedented scale of wildfire devastation this summer and in such trying times, the EU’s swift assistance is vital,” Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management, said in a statement.

Amid a heat wave, a fire that started on July 18 and was fanned by strong winds has ravaged almost 17,770 ha in 10 days in the south of Rhodes, a popular tourist island in the southeastern Aegean Sea.

Around 20,000 people, mostly tourists, had to be evacuated.

In Spain, Italy and Portugal, firefighters were battling blazes as the region suffered hot, dry and windy conditions that scientists have linked to climate change.

Temperatures in many areas were expected to reach or exceed 40 degrees Celsius, forecasters said. Italy and France declared red alerts in a number of areas.

The latest heat wave comes after a torrid July that was the hottest month on record.

In Spain, where most of the country was in very high or extreme risk of wildfire amid the summer’s fourth heat wave, authorities were struggling to stabilize a huge wildfire that has been ravaging forests on the island of Tenerife for a week.

The blaze has burned through 15,000 ha in 12 municipalities, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

In neighboring Portugal, authorities placed more than 120 municipalities in the northern and central areas, as well as in some parts of the Algarve, a popular holiday destination in the south, at maximum risk of wildfires due to the heat.

More than 100 firefighters backed by 10 aircraft were battling a wildfire that erupted on Monday night in the northern Portuguese city of Baião.

In Italy, around 700 people were evacuated after a fire broke out on Monday on the Tuscan island of Elba, firefighter Alessandro Vitaliano told Reuters.

No casualties have been reported.

Italy issued on Tuesday red alerts for hot weather in 16 of the country’s 27 main cities, including Rome, Milan and Florence, with the number set to rise on Wednesday.

France’s weather service on Tuesday widened its red alert, the most serious warning, to include 15 more departments (counties) from Wednesday, which will cover large swaths of the southeastern Provence region and some areas to the southwest.

Climbers were asked to delay scaling Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak, because of high temperatures.

Grape pickers in the wine-producing regions of southern France have been advised to start work on the harvest in the early hours of the morning to avoid sweltering in the late summer heat wave.

Maritime traffic in the Dardanelles Strait, a narrow and historically significant passage connecting the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea, was suspended due to an ongoing forest fire in the Turkish northwestern province of Canakkale.

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