A forest fire threatened a southern suburb of Athens on Saturday, firefighters said, prompting the evacuation of several homes. 

The Greek civil protection called by SMS via the emergency number 112 the inhabitants of Ano Voula and the surrounding area to move away from their homes because the flames have already reached a residential area there. 

Some 72 firefighters with 20 trucks, supported by six water bomber planes and three helicopters, were dispatched to the scene.

Violent winds, force 8 on the Beaufort scale (which has thirteen degrees), caused the fire to progress to the first houses of Panorama Voulas.

Ant1 TV channel showed police urging locals to leave.

" The situation is very difficult and the wind is not helping ," said Giannis Konstantatos, the mayor of Ellinikon-Argiroupoli, a neighboring town.

" The atmosphere is suffocating, it is difficult to breathe ," he told the Athens News Agency.

Giorgos Papanikolaou, the mayor of Glyfada, where the fire broke out, said, without providing further details, that a high-voltage power station had been the cause of the disaster, the agency added. According to the media, a power outage occurred in the area.

Greece's worst heat wave in decades last summer, which authorities blamed on climate change, sparked fires that destroyed more than 100,000 hectares of forest and farmland, worst wildfire damage since 2007.

More than 200 firefighters and equipment provided by other European Union countries will soon be deployed in Greece to help in the fight against these disasters.

The European Commission said on Thursday that Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Norway would participate in the operation, coordinated by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.