European firefighters and planes join battle against wildfires in Greece

Water-dropping planes from several European countries joined hundreds of firefighters on Wednesday battling wildfires raging for days across Greece that left 20 people dead, while major blazes also burned in Spain’s Tenerife and in northwestern Turkey near the Greek border.

Greece’s largest active forest fire was burning out of control for the fifth day near the city of Alexandroupolis in the country’s northeast, while authorities were trying to prevent a blaze on the northwestern fringe of Athens from scorching homes and reaching the Parnitha national park, one of the last green areas near the Greek capital.