Greek firefighters again went into battle on August 24 2009 against wildfires that have swept into areas in the north of Athens, and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov has offered his counterpart Costas Karamanlis Bulgaria’s help in stemming the blazes.
 
Borissov offered Bulgaria’s technical and medical help, the Cabinet media office said.
 
Karamanlis inspected fire-threatened areas on the night of August 23 and told journalists that firefighters were making enormous efforts on all fronts.
 
Firefighters said that there were a number of hotspots in north-eastern Athens.
 
Thousands of residents of the capital's northern suburbs were forced to leave their homes as dozens of houses and large areas of forest were burnt, the BBC said on August 24.
 
But a Greek government spokesman told the BBC things were now looking much better in the Athens area and the immediate danger had passed.
 
At dawn, aircraft resumed water-dropping on the fires.
 
Greek daily Kathimerini said on August 24 that authorities had declared a state of emergency after a fire that started on the night of August 21 in Grammatiko spread elsewhere.
 
Hundreds of firefighters were dispatched to fight the fierce flames but the ever-changing winds made their job difficult. Cyprus, Italy and other European Union countries sent water-dropping aircraft and helicopters to aid the efforts of Greek aircraft.
 
Karamanlis chaired an emergency summit with his ministers for the interior, defence and the environment on August 23 to assess how authorities should tackle the catastrophic forest fires.
 
Kathimerini said that opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou said that "now is not the time to assess the cause and reason for the fires but to stand by our fellow citizens in trouble." The leader of Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), Giorgos Karatzaferis, was less diplomatic. "Nobody learned anything from the big fires of 2007," he said.