EU officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.
In Greece, authorities ordered the evacuation of two villages in the central Viotia region, about 100km northwest of Athens, after a forest fire broke out on Monday morning.
The coast guard put two patrol boats and several fishing boats and private vessels on standby in case an evacuation by sea was necessary.
Authorities said the body of a man was recovered from a sheep pen in the area under evacuation, with local media reporting the man apparently died of smoke inhalation while trying to save his livestock.
In the northeast of the country near the border with Turkey, strong winds rekindled flames on several fronts in a major wildfire burning for a third day across forests and farmland near the town of Alexandroupolis.
Several homes were destroyed over the weekend. Thirteen villages were evacuated, while more than 200 firefighters, assisted by 16 water-dropping planes and seven helicopters, volunteers and the armed forces were battling the fire, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said.
Cyprus was sending two firefighting aircraft to help tackle the Alexandroupolis blaze, including four crew and five ground support staff.
With gale-force winds blowing in several parts of the country, authorities set the fire risk level in several regions, including that of the Greek capital, to "extreme".
"The (firefighting) system is on alert, and we must be too. The risk of wildfires remains high," Marinakis said.
Greece suffers destructive wildfires every summer, which officials say have been exacerbated by climate change.
Last month a wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. Another three wildfire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.
In Spain's Canary Islands, a wildfire that police say was started deliberately last Tuesday on Tenerife continued to burn out of control, although the worst seemed to have passed.
More than 12,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and nearly 13,000 hectares of pine forest and scrubland have burned.
Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was to visit the area on Monday to review the damage. Canary Island regional President Fernando Clavijo told Spain's Cadena SER radio "the worst is over", adding that the hundreds of firefighters deployed had made some progress for the second night in a row.
The fire in the northeast of the island is not near any of the islands' main tourist areas. The blaze has come close to some 10 municipalities, but there have been no injuries or burned homes so far.
