Pefki wildfire evacuees arrive at Arkitsa

A ferry carrying panicked and exhausted evacuees from the village of Pefki arrived at the port of Arkitsa, 150 km northeast of Athens, on Sunday evening.

A few hours earlier, fast-moving flames encroached on the seaside village of Pefki on the island's northern coast, burning trees on the fringes and entering the houses' yards.

At least one house was on fire.

Residents raced with water tanks, hoses and branches in a seemingly futile effort to extinguish the flames.

Pillars of billowing smoke and ash turned the sky orange and blocked out the sun above Greece's second-largest island Sunday as a days-old wildfire devoured pristine forests and encroached on villages, triggering more evacuation alerts.

The fire on Evia, an island of forested mountains and canyons laced with small coves of crystalline water, began Aug. 3 and cut across the popular summer destination from coast to coast as it burned out of control.

The blaze is the most severe of dozens that broke out in the wake of Greece's most protracted heat wave in three decades, which sent temperatures soaring to 45 degrees Celsius (113 F) for days, creating bone-dry conditions.