ATHENS—One woman was killed in Greece’s worst wildfire of the year, which continued to burn on the outskirts of the capital Athens on Tuesday, despite lighter winds and firefighting operations, according to authorities. Hundreds of firemen, assisted by six waterbombing planes, battled the inferno that broke out on Sunday near the village of Varnavas, 35 kilometers (20 miles) north of Athens.

The flame, fueled by gale-force winds, surged from a wooded, mountainous area into the suburbs on Monday, torching homes and instilling fear in neighborhoods that had not seen a fire this close to the center in decades. It reached Vrilissia, around 14 kilometers (8 miles) from central Athens, a day ago, where a 64-year-old lady was discovered dead inside a factory, witnesses said on Tuesday. “In 35 years of living here, no fire had ever reached this area,” said Meletis Makris, a 65-year-old pensioner from Vrilissia. The cause of the wildfire has not yet been identified.

Pockets of fire lingered in northern Athens, but the ferocious blazes observed on Monday had diminished, and the heavy smoke that had enveloped center Athens had mainly cleared. “There is no active front, but scattered outbreaks,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias stated on television. However, gales are anticipated to start up again later Tuesday, and the country will stay on high fire warning until Thursday, with strong winds and temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). “The overall picture appears to have improved, but there are still many fronts in various areas,” stated a firefighting official.

For years, Greek summers have been plagued by wildfires, with the deadliest killing 104 people in the beach town of Mati, near the capital, in 2018. The southern European country had its warmest winter on record this year and was on track for its hottest summer, with little rain in many regions for months. “The blaze had all of the traits that firefighters do not want a forest fire to have. Nikos Lavranos, head of the Greek Fire Service Employees Federation, told Greek TV that the conditions were hot, dry, and windy. “It was extremely aggressive, difficult to manage and unpredictable,” he told me. The heatwave in Greece was mirrored throughout southern Europe, including Spain and the Balkans.