Hundreds of firefighters on Tuesday fought for a sixth day to save one of Greece's most important national parks from a fire that has already devastated vast swathes of forest.

"Firebreaks are being broadened (at the Dadia national park)," Dimitris Petrovits, deputy governor of the Evros region in northeast Greece, told reporters.

More than 2,500 hectares (6,178 acres) of pine forest are already estimated to have been lost to the fire that erupted last Thursday.

"It is very difficult to check the fire because the vegetation is so dense," a fire department spokesman told AFP.

More than 300 firefighters, four aircraft and six helicopters are active in the area, he said.

Dadia, around 900 kilometres, (560 miles) northeast of Athens, calls itself one of the most important protected areas in Europe, offering ideal habitat for rare birds of prey, and says it is home to the only breeding population of black vultures in the Balkans.

The park's deputy manager Anna Konstandinidou said the 428-square-kilometre (165 square-mile) facility has already sustained "incalculable" damage.

"It's been a great shock," she told state television ERT.

"The (bird) observatory has been completely destroyed. The only goal now is to save the most important area that contains the black vulture nests," she said.

The park hosts three out of Europe's four vulture species -- the black vulture, the griffon vulture and the Egyptian vulture -- and 36 of Europe's 38 species of raptors.

Its varied habitats also support 104 butterfly species, 13 amphibian species, 29 reptile species and about 65 mammal species, 24 out of which are bats.

Greece is particularly vulnerable to fires during the summer season. Wildfires last year destroyed 103,000 hectares and claimed three lives, driven by drought and a warming climate.

Scientists say human-induced climate change is amplifying extreme weather events -- including heatwaves, droughts and fires seen in several parts of Europe and California in recent weeks -- and say these events will become more frequent and more intense.

Nearly 60 forest fires have broken out in Greece in the last 24 hours according to the country's fire service.

Last week saw temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the country, although temperatures have dipped slightly this week.

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