A wildfire tore through small towns nestled in a wooded area north of Athens on Tuesday, spurred on by high winds and damaging several homes.

Plumes of billowing dark smoke could be seen rising above houses and through the forest as firefighting planes and helicopters flew above, dowsing the flames with water.

"It was a very difficult fire, a crown fire, which moved from area to area with the wind, and, as a result, spread extremely quickly with multiple fronts erupting," said Greece's civil protection minister, Michalis Chrysochoidis, during a briefing.

Wind gusts reached 7 Beaufort, helping the flames jump from tree to tree, according to police. A total of 310 firefighters, 12 helicopters and nine planes helped in the effort to extinguish the blazes.

In the village of Rodopoli, located about 30 kilometres north of the Greek capital, several homes were damaged by the fire.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries.

Greece has bitter memories of a 2018 blaze that burned through the seaside town of Mati near Athens, killing 102 people in a matter of hours.

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