The Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — Firefighters extinguished a blaze at a solvent factory near Athens Thursday.
The fire service said flames were put out at port of Lavrio, some 55 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Athens, following a 19-hour effort involving the water-bombing planes, two helicopters and nearly 200 firefighters.
Government officials on Wednesday said they had drawn up contingency plans to evacuate people from the town of 10,000 because of toxic fumes produced by the blaze.
The fire destroyed at least five of the plant’s 40 storage tanks.
“It was our aim from the start: stop the fire from spreading to the other tanks. We had to keep dousing those tanks, and we did,” Fire Chief Andreas Kois said.
The head of the regional government responsible for Lavrio said several of the plant’s storage tanks were operating without a license, but did not say whether that was related to the fire.