Greek firefighters have rescued a group of 25 asylum seekers trapped in a forest in northeastern Greece as flames from a massive wildfire burning for two weeks approached.

"While operating between the villages of Giannouli and Dadia, 25 people were found and taken to a safe place by the fire brigade and police," Greek fire brigade spokesperson Ioann is Artopoios said on Friday.

No injuries were reported.

The irregular migrants were all male and said they were from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, a police official said. The official said they were arrested.

The blaze, burning for the 14th day on Friday, has already been blamed for the deaths of 20 people whose bodies were found last week. All are believed to have been migrants who had recently crossed the border. Greece’s Disaster Victim Identification Team has been tasked with identifying the remains.

A multinational force of more than 580 firefighters backed by six planes and two helicopters is battling the wildfire that began on Aug. 19 and within days had joined with other blazes to form the largest single wildfire in a European Union country since records began in 2000.

The fire has burned homes and vast tracts of forest, scorching more than 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres).

Overnight, residents of the border town of Soufli were put on alert for possible evacuation as a huge wall of flames approached. To date, thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in villages and towns in northeastern Greece due to the fire, although the vast majority have since been allowed back.

Investigation continues

Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis implied — without providing any evidence — that refugees may have been responsible for the Evros fire, even though he noted an investigation into the causes is still ongoing.

"It is almost certain that the causes were manmade. And it is also almost certain that this fire started on routes that are often used by illegal migrants who have entered our country," Mitsotakis said.

"We don't know if it was negligence or deliberate."

Last week, three people — two Greeks and one Albanian national — were arrested in northeastern Greece and charged with a series of crimes for allegedly rounding up 13 people from Syria and Pakistan and forcing them into a car trailer, accusing them, without any evidence, of setting fires.

Mitsotakis said incidents of vigilantism would not be tolerated.

Greece has been stricken by hundreds of wildfires across the country this summer, with dozens of new blazes breaking out each day. The vast majority are extinguished quickly before they spread, but the Evros blaze has proved particularly tough to control.

Another persistent blaze has been burning for more than a week in a national park on the slopes of Mount Parnitha, on the fringes of Athens, with more than 160 firefighters trying to extinguish occasional flare-ups.