ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of firefighters battled fires that raged along the outskirts of Athens on Wednesday, some started by gypsies burning for scrap, with the fronts threatening to cut off a major highway out of the city.
Some 30 fire engines, and two helicopters were battling tocontrol the flames near the industrial town of Aspropyrgos, 20kilometres (12 miles) west of Athens, Greek fire officialssaid.
The fires were approaching the major road artery of AttikiOdos, which connects Athens to the country's national highwaynetwork, and officials were starting to divert traffic toparallel roads.
At least four warehouses were damaged with dozens morethreatened in what is one of Greece's main industrial zones.Hundreds of factories, warehouses and businesses are based inAspropyrgos.
The blazes were part of at least 102 fronts burning acrossthe country, with firefighters battling blazes in central,northern Greece and the island of Andros, officials said.
"The situation is still difficult but houses are notthreatened. It was quite bad this morning," Aspropyrgos deputymayor George Tsokas told Reuters. "It seems as if some of thefires started from a gypsy settlement early this morning."
Gypsy communities regularly collect plastic coated cablingand tyres from rubbish tips, and then burn them to collect theremaining wire and metals which are then sold for scrap.
"Fires are set on a daily basis, but when police andauthorities go to these camps to put them out they are shotat," Angelos Fiskilis, a worker at Aspropyrgos, told Greek SkaiTV.
Fire officials said it was too early to tell whether theblazes would be put under control soon, as strong winds areexpected to pick up across the country later in the day,creating new fronts and reigniting quashed fires.
(Reporting by George Hatzidakis and Tatiana Fragou; Editingby Dominic Evans)
