Wildfires rage in Portugal, Greece and Spain while Greek authorities warn of toxic smoke

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of firefighters battled wildfires in Portugal, Greece and Spain on Sunday, with Spain and Italy sending reinforcements to Portugal to help with a massive blaze burning for more than three days.

Authorities urged residents in parts of Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, to remain indoors and shut their windows and doors due to toxic smoke from a burning recycling plant that was engulfed by a wildfire.

Another major wildfire broke out Sunday afternoon west of the Greek capital, Athens. The fire department said 210 firefighters, backed up by volunteers, specialized teams and 29 aircraft, including water-dropping planes and helicopters, were deployed to battle the blaze burning through pine forest in the Mandra area. Authorities were racing to contain the blaze before nightfall, when aircraft can no longer perform firefighting operations.

In central Portugal’s Vouzela area, more than 1,200 firefighters backed up by nearly 400 vehicles and 15 aircraft tried to put out a blaze that broke out Thursday, according to the Civil Protection authority. The wildfire had burned across an area of 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) by Sunday, information from the European Union’s Copernicus satellite mapping agency showed.

The EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid said that Spain sent 120 firefighters and 45 vehicles as reinforcements to Portugal on Friday, while three firefighting aircraft from Italy and Spain were also dispatched to help.

By Sunday afternoon, the fire appeared to be abating somewhat, with Portuguese media quoting officials as saying it no longer had major active fronts but that some hot spots remained.

In Spain, a wildfire burning since Friday in the northeastern Girona region had burned nearly 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres), the EFE news agency said. Catalan Fire Service head of operations Eduard Martinez said the blaze had a perimeter of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and firefighters may not be able to bring it under control on Sunday, EFE said.

On the other side of southern Europe, in Greece, a fast-moving blaze at a recycling plant broke out Saturday evening near the Oraiokastro suburb of Thessaloniki, triggering evacuation alerts for three suburbs and a facility housing 157 people with disabilities.

Strong winds fanned the flames, and around 160 firefighters were deployed to battle the flames through the night until water-dropping aircraft could take off at dawn, the fire department said.

Oraiokastro Mayor Pandelis Tsakiris said on Greece’s state broadcaster ERT that several businesses and homes were damaged but a clearer picture would emerge after authorities conduct a full evaluation.

A 76-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of having started the blaze through negligence by generating sparks with his vehicle that set vegetation near the road alight, the fire department said. He was due to appear before a prosecutor Sunday.

The fire came days after another wildfire in a nearby area killed a 12-year-old boy and his father.

Fire department spokesman Brig. Ioannis Artopoios, speaking on ERT TV on Sunday, said that about 85% of wildfires in Greece were caused by negligence, including through sparks generated through the use of agriculture machinery, discarded cigarettes and the use of outdoor barbecues. “This means most of them could have been avoided,” he said.

Greece suffers frequent, often devastating, wildfires during its hot, dry summers. In 2018, a blaze east of Athens killed more than 100 people, while a massive fire in 2023, which tore through a remote nature reserve in northeastern Greece, was the largest wildfire recorded in the EU.

The country has increasingly turned to technology to combat the threat of fires, exacerbated by climate change. It is integrating an array of four satellites, launched into low orbit in May, that will monitor for wildfires.

So far this summer, Greece has been spared the heatwaves that have scorched much of western Europe in recent weeks. But it has still seen dozens of blazes across the country, both on the mainland and the country's islands.

A woman reacts during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Locals try to extinguish a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A view of a burnt building from a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at a warehouse during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A helicopter drops water over a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Thick smoke rises above Filothei settlement during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Blazes rise from a burning building during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, early Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Firefighters and others are silhouetted in front of a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys for Rep. Ilhan Omar asked the Justice Department on Friday to immediately return property that federal agents seized from her home this week, arguing that the search stemming from an immigration fraud investigation was “neither justified nor lawful.”

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, lawyers for the Democrat from Minnesota described the investigation as a baseless effort to go after a longtime political target of Republican President Donald Trump, noting that the search was conducted just weeks before the midterm elections, in which Omar is on the ballot.

Omar's attorneys wrote that there is "no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status."

“This vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated criminal investigation into one of the President’s chief congressional critics violates Representative Omar’s constitutional rights and threatens the separation of powers," Omar's legal team wrote in the letter first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the letter from Omar's defense team was “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.”

“Our attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do,” department spokesperson Emily Covington wrote in a text message Friday evening.

Monday's search of Omar's Washington, D.C., home this week drew swift condemnation from Democrats, as the Justice Department has historically sought to avoid public investigative actions involving a candidate within 60 days of a primary or general election.

Federal authorities seized Omar's phone in the search and have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, a person briefed on the probe told the AP this week.

The scope of the investigation into Omar is unclear, though Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has suggested that authorities were examining potential crimes related to her family’s immigration paperwork. Separately, Washington's U.S Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said “there are several investigations going on” related to Omar and her office is probing issues concerning the lawmaker’s financial disclosures.

In the letter, Omar's attorneys accused the Justice Department of violating longstanding agency policy designed to avoid potentially influencing an election. They also raised concerns about whether the department appropriately followed all of the specific instructions by the magistrate judge who approved the search.

In addition to the return of her property, Omar's attorneys are demanding that the Justice Department preserve any audio and video that was taken during the search, according to the letter.

Omar has repeatedly refuted allegations about her marriage and immigration status raised by conservative critics, even before she joined Congress.

According to her House biography, Omar has said she and her family fled Somalia’s civil war when she was 8: “The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family.” She became a lawfully naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, according to her lawyers.

Conservative online sites have alleged that Omar married a brother to commit immigration fraud. Omar has broadly denied the allegations as “disgusting lies” and called the insinuation “absurd and offensive.”

The search of her home came just days after Trump referred pejoratively to Omar at a rally in Tennessee as coming from a country of “crime and squalor” and suggested that Vice President JD Vance “and our people” were investigating her. Hours after the search, Trump told reporters he had “nothing to do” with it and it’s “really up to the DOJ.”

Homeland Security officers carry boxes from the Washington residence of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, during a search. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Homeland Security officers leave the Washington residence of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., after a search, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)