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A firefighter next to a house burning during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens, Greece, on Monday. Wildfires are not new to Greece but several blazes erupted especially quickly.

Valerie Gache/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 1:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday

At least 24 people have died and more than 100 are injured as three huge fires fueled by powerful winds burned homes and forests in towns near the Greek capital, Athens, government officials said.

Greece has declared a state of emergency and asked the European Union to send help. Greek firefighters battled the flames throughout the night near the seaside town of Kineta, about 35 miles west of Athens, and around the towns of Pendeli and Kalamos in the north.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short his visit to neighboring Bosnia and quickly returned to Athens. He told reporters that his government will do "whatever is humanly possible to control" the fires. Citizens' Protection Minister Nikos Toskas suggested arsonists caused the fires.

Wildfires are not unusual during Greece's hot, dry summers. Dozens of people died during an especially fiery summer in 2007.

But Monday's blazes near Athens spread so quickly, they seemed to catch everyone off guard.

Giorgos Mathiopoulos, the head of Greece's emergency workers association, told reporters that one fire broke out around noon and the second around 5 p.m.

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/23/631683905/deadly-wildfires-destroy-sweep-through-towns-near-athens-greece