ATHENS – Days of efforts by firefighters, volunteers and water-dropping airplanes and helicopters and help from other European Union countries helped contain fires raging across Greece.

But what looks to become a record heat wave raised the alarm that it won’t be the end of the blazes as forests and woodlands have been turned into tinderboxes ripe for erupting again.

After seeming to lose control of a fire around the capital it was beaten back with the help of the air water bombers, Greece having bolstered its resources after 2021 wildfires caught ruling New Democracy off guard.

On the island of Rhodes, firefighters continued to battle a blaze that broke out in a heavily wooded mountainous area, causing people to flee for their lives as it spread before responders could get there.

Greece’s weather service warned of a higher fire risk because of the searing temperatures expected to reach 113 degrees or even more in spots and has made trees and brush more easily combustible.

Firefighting land and air crews were to continue patrolling forests around the country, with summer fires common, many in the past believed deliberately set to clear land for development.

The deadly July 23, 2018 wildfires that claimed 104 lives and nearly wiped out the seaside village of Mati when the Radical Left SYRIZA was in power, and blamed for a shambolic response, didn’t lead to upgrading the service.

With that and the 2021 fires as a reminder, the response this time was more rapid and widespread and yet led to some complaints from political rivals – including SYRIZA – that not enough was done, nor fast enough.

Greek authorities put three areas on Rhodes under a State of Emergency for one day to mobilize more forces as the wildfires there were spreading despite efforts to rein them in.

That was for Kameiros, Atavyros and Lindos and will remain in place until Jan. 18, 2024 under a decision signed by Civil Protection General Secretary, Vassilis Papageorgiou as cautionary.

Greek officials earlier evacuated four villages and a hotel as the wildfire that broke out in the early hours of July 19 near the village of Apollonas in the western mountains approached.