Deadly fires finally out in Greece
September 3, 2007
ATHENS, (AFP): Forest fires that have ravaged southern Greece for the past 11 days, killing at least 64 people, were finally extinguished on Monday, fire services said.
Vast tracts in the Peloponnese peninsula and other areas and 200,000 hectares of countryside were destroyed in the fire which began on August 24.
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
IHT : Fires in Greece force helicopter evacuation
Monday, August 27, 2007
Fires in Greece force helicopter evacuation
The Associated Press | August 26, 2007
ATHENS, Greece: Firefighters sent helicopters and buses Monday to evacuate more than two dozen villages threatened by towering walls of flames that have left 63 people dead in Greece's worst wildfire disaster in memory.
From the northern border with Albania to the southern island of Crete, fires ravaged forests and farmland. Residents used garden hoses, buckets, tin cans and branches in desperate — and sometimes futile — attempts to save their homes and livelihoods.
In some villages, firefighters sent helicopters or vehicles to evacuate the residents, only to find people insist on staying to fight the blaze.
A helicopter airlifted five people to safety Monday from the village of Prasidaki in southern Greece, fire department spokesman Yiannis Stamoulis said. Another was sent to the village of Frixa, but the residents refused to leave, he said.
The destruction was so extensive that authorities said they had no way of knowing how much has burned — or how many people had been injured.
Fueled by strong, hot winds and parched grass and trees, the fires have engulfed villages, forests and farmland, and scorched woodland around Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic games. New blazes broke out faster than others could be brought under control, leaving behind a devastated landscape of blackened tree trunks, gutted houses and charred animal carcasses.
The destruction and deaths have infuriated Greeks — already stunned by deadly forest fires in June and July — and appears likely to dominate political debate before early general elections scheduled for Sept. 16. Many blamed the government for failing to respond quickly enough.
The government — which declared a state of emergency over the weekend — said arson might have been the cause, and several people have been arrested. A prosecutor on Monday ordered an investigation into whether arson attacks could come under Greece's anti-terrorism and organized crime laws.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said it could not be coincidence that so many fires broke out simultaneously in so many areas of the country.
In the past, unscrupulous land developers have been blamed for setting fires in an attempt to circumvent laws that do not allow construction on forest land. Greece has no land registry, so once a region has been burned, there is no definitive proof of whether it was initially forest, farm or field.
"It is rather late now, but the state should designate these areas to be immediately reforested, map them and complete the forest registry without further delay," said Yiannis Revythis, chairman of the association of Athens real estate agents. "If an area is officially designated as forest land, who will burn it as it will still count as forest land?"
But it was in no way clear who — if anyone — was responsible for the massive fires that have destroyed much of Greece over the past four days.
"I think it is unlikely that land development was an incentive behind the arson," said Nikos Bokaris, head of the Panhellenic Union of Forestry Experts. "The afflicted areas are not prime targets for construction. These are mountain areas where land is not that valuable."
Across the country, scenes of devastation unfolded.
A woman killed on Friday, her charred body found with her arms around her four children, might have been safe if she had stayed in her home. It was the only house left untouched by the flames in the village of Artemida in the western Peloponnese. The house's white walls and red tile roof were unscathed, surrounded by blackened earth.
Greece's few remaining patches of forest rapidly were being rapidly incinerated, and the environmental consequences will be dire, experts said.
The worst of the fires are concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in the south and on the island of Evia north of Athens. Strong winds blew smoke and ash over the capital.
"This is an immense ecological disaster," said Theodota Nantsou, WWF Greece Conservation Manager. "We had an explosive mixture of very adverse weather conditions, tinder-dry forests — to an extent not seen for many years — combined with the wild winds of the past two weeks. It's a recipe to burn the whole country."
Borakis said authorities would have to move quickly in order to avert further environmental problems.
"Authorities will have to take measures to forestall ground erosion," he said. "Luckily, in the broader area there are no large cities that will bear the brunt of floodwaters from the mountains. There will be more floods, but the waters will be carried through the natural system of watercourses and ravines to the sea."
The government appealed for help from abroad, and 19 countries were sending planes, helicopters and firefighters, including France, which dispatched four water-tanker planes, and Russia, which was sending three helicopters and an amphibian plane. The U.S. was discussing with the Greek government what form of assistance to send, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
Desperate residents called into television stations for help from a firefighting service already stretched to the limit.
Associated Press writers John F.L. Ross in Artemida and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this report.
The Associated Press | August 26, 2007
ATHENS, Greece: Firefighters sent helicopters and buses Monday to evacuate more than two dozen villages threatened by towering walls of flames that have left 63 people dead in Greece's worst wildfire disaster in memory.
From the northern border with Albania to the southern island of Crete, fires ravaged forests and farmland. Residents used garden hoses, buckets, tin cans and branches in desperate — and sometimes futile — attempts to save their homes and livelihoods.
In some villages, firefighters sent helicopters or vehicles to evacuate the residents, only to find people insist on staying to fight the blaze.
A helicopter airlifted five people to safety Monday from the village of Prasidaki in southern Greece, fire department spokesman Yiannis Stamoulis said. Another was sent to the village of Frixa, but the residents refused to leave, he said.
The destruction was so extensive that authorities said they had no way of knowing how much has burned — or how many people had been injured.
Fueled by strong, hot winds and parched grass and trees, the fires have engulfed villages, forests and farmland, and scorched woodland around Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic games. New blazes broke out faster than others could be brought under control, leaving behind a devastated landscape of blackened tree trunks, gutted houses and charred animal carcasses.
The destruction and deaths have infuriated Greeks — already stunned by deadly forest fires in June and July — and appears likely to dominate political debate before early general elections scheduled for Sept. 16. Many blamed the government for failing to respond quickly enough.
The government — which declared a state of emergency over the weekend — said arson might have been the cause, and several people have been arrested. A prosecutor on Monday ordered an investigation into whether arson attacks could come under Greece's anti-terrorism and organized crime laws.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said it could not be coincidence that so many fires broke out simultaneously in so many areas of the country.
In the past, unscrupulous land developers have been blamed for setting fires in an attempt to circumvent laws that do not allow construction on forest land. Greece has no land registry, so once a region has been burned, there is no definitive proof of whether it was initially forest, farm or field.
"It is rather late now, but the state should designate these areas to be immediately reforested, map them and complete the forest registry without further delay," said Yiannis Revythis, chairman of the association of Athens real estate agents. "If an area is officially designated as forest land, who will burn it as it will still count as forest land?"
But it was in no way clear who — if anyone — was responsible for the massive fires that have destroyed much of Greece over the past four days.
"I think it is unlikely that land development was an incentive behind the arson," said Nikos Bokaris, head of the Panhellenic Union of Forestry Experts. "The afflicted areas are not prime targets for construction. These are mountain areas where land is not that valuable."
Across the country, scenes of devastation unfolded.
A woman killed on Friday, her charred body found with her arms around her four children, might have been safe if she had stayed in her home. It was the only house left untouched by the flames in the village of Artemida in the western Peloponnese. The house's white walls and red tile roof were unscathed, surrounded by blackened earth.
Greece's few remaining patches of forest rapidly were being rapidly incinerated, and the environmental consequences will be dire, experts said.
The worst of the fires are concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in the south and on the island of Evia north of Athens. Strong winds blew smoke and ash over the capital.
"This is an immense ecological disaster," said Theodota Nantsou, WWF Greece Conservation Manager. "We had an explosive mixture of very adverse weather conditions, tinder-dry forests — to an extent not seen for many years — combined with the wild winds of the past two weeks. It's a recipe to burn the whole country."
Borakis said authorities would have to move quickly in order to avert further environmental problems.
"Authorities will have to take measures to forestall ground erosion," he said. "Luckily, in the broader area there are no large cities that will bear the brunt of floodwaters from the mountains. There will be more floods, but the waters will be carried through the natural system of watercourses and ravines to the sea."
The government appealed for help from abroad, and 19 countries were sending planes, helicopters and firefighters, including France, which dispatched four water-tanker planes, and Russia, which was sending three helicopters and an amphibian plane. The U.S. was discussing with the Greek government what form of assistance to send, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
Desperate residents called into television stations for help from a firefighting service already stretched to the limit.
Associated Press writers John F.L. Ross in Artemida and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this report.
IHT : Greeks battle to save homes from fire
Monday, August 27, 2007
Greeks battle to save homes from fire
By Ian Fisher and Anthee Carassava | August 27, 2007
MAKISTOS, Greece: When the water ran out, with pinecones popping and the flames still high around his house, George Dimopoulos switched to wine. He made it himself two years ago, and, nearly alone in his village as it all but burned down Friday night, he poured liter after liter, 200 in all, into his little copper hand-pumped crop sprayer - and sprayed and sprayed.
"I had nothing else," said Dimopoulos, 63.
His wine helped save his life, his house and possibly his neighborhood. But it was an exception in this village and the one next door, Artemida, an area where the death toll from Greece's worst fires in more than a century accounted for nearly half the 63 people now reported to have been killed.
Most of them died on the run. An elderly brother and sister, unmarried and living together, fled with their only donkey and would not leave it. A convoy trying to outrace the flames snarled into a crash, in a fire so hot it liquefied metal and bubbled windshields like grilled cheese. At least 23 people died trying to escape. Medical workers found, in a nearby olive grove fanned over by fire, four children shielded by their mother's body.
These are stories Europe is no longer used to hearing about itself, believing that in the developed world problems like forest fires can be solved. And though southern Europe has been hit with drought this year and high winds spread the flames faster than cars could drive, the government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, heading for elections next month, is facing a crisis over whether it was up to the task of handling the crisis.
A very angry Dimopoulos thinks not, though fire officials began Monday to speak with optimism that, at a minimum, the fires were spreading less rapidly. With houses toppled and scorched all around his, he strapped his crop sprayer to his back again on Monday and began a lesson on how to put out fires.
"Bring Karamanlis here and I will take him by the hair and show him how I did it!" he roared, squirting a bit of water, now available again, on his wood pile.
The government, seeking to deflect criticism, has blamed arson, reportedly arresting seven people for setting various fires, which have flared around the nation, most here on the Peloponnesian peninsula and on Evia island north of Athens. Adding to conspiracy theories blasted over an alarmist Greek media - including the possibility that the fires were started as a hostile act from abroad - a Greek prosecutor Monday ordered an investigation over whether the fires might be prosecuted under the nation's anti-terrorism laws.
Meanwhile, the nation's fire departments and the army continued an all-out effort, aided by other European firefighters and aircraft along with scores of citizen brigades, to get the fires under control. For the first time since the blazes erupted Friday, some progress was reported: While 44 out-of-control fires were reported Sunday, the number dropped by 10 on Monday, aided by the second day of calm winds.
The danger has by no means passed. In the village of Grillos, just over a ridge from here on the western Peloponnesus, a couple that owns a restaurant watched in tears and worry as flames advanced from three directions. Fire trucks spewed water in the flames' path.
"All we need is one of those," said one owner, Iannis Drakopoulos, 72, as a Russian plane carrying a huge bucket of water passed overhead. "If he dropped here, it would all have been fine."
In Artemida and here in Makistos, the flames were already out, and Monday was instead a day for tallying the damage and preparing to bury the dead.
"What is there to say?" asked Efstathios Alexandropoulos in the hilltop cemetery in Artemida. With a small crew of helpers, he and a brother were laying the concrete blocks for a single crypt to hold his son, Phillipos, 6; a niece, Ioanna, also 6; and his mother, also named Ioanna.
Up the hill, workers were preparing the grave for Athanasia Karta-Paraskevopoulos, 35, a teacher born here but who lived in Athens, and the four children she shielded as the flames closed in on them: Angeliki, 15; Maria, 12; Anastassia, about 10; and Constantinos, 5. They had been on vacation.
White marble was being fitted across the cemetery for her brother, Harilaos Karta, 46, a policeman who also lived in Athens.
"Before you could say fire, it was here," Vassiliki Bammi, 62, a resident of Artemida, said in town's ruined square.
She was in the town when the fire hit, and all the descriptions from people who saw it were the same: of flames moving at an unimaginable rate, unexpected despite the winds, and no one apart from the police to help. Fires in the summer are not uncommon here, and there had been sporadic ones in the area. But no one seems to have thought they would suddenly rage out of control.
The fire reportedly came over a ridge first to Makistos, a village of just 60 homes. Antonios Kokkaliaris, an 80-year-old farmer, said he had been reading a newspaper, underline parts he liked, when he heard the bell in St. John's church ring.
"I went out and I saw the flames before me and people running," he said. He could not leave, he said, because his wife, Koula, 82, is severely disabled. He said he took her downstairs. "I told her, 'Stay put, we're going to fight this out.' I grabbed onto the hose and I started dousing, left, right and center."
The town emptied, with only he, a herdsman and Dimopoulos with his wine staying behind. He managed to douse his home, and two next door, well enough that the fires howled past, leaving his house intact. He described the experience as "horror, complete horror."
But when the danger passed, he did not feel relief.
"I was disappointed, honestly," he said. "Because not only was there no one to help me, there was no one in sight. 'Am I just standing here alone? What happened to all my townspeople? What is the purpose of life if I am all alone?' "
The fire quickly ripped into Artemida, about three kilometers, or two kilometers, away. Residents piled into cars down the road toward Zaharo, the area's main town, on the Aegean Sea. Alexandropoulos, at the time in Zaharo, said he heard that the flames reached his village and called his mother, who was taking care of his son, Phillipos.
"I didn't even speak with her," he said. "I just said, 'I'm coming. Get going.' "
"I just didn't make it," he said.
He could not, according to several accounts, because fire swept across the road to the village, blocking off cars. Karta-Paraskevopoulos, her car full of her children and possibly others, turned around along with another car. In the smoke and confusion, there was an accident with other fleeing cars and a fire truck, which rolled over. Everyone in the convoy, several of them elderly, fled up a slope into the olive groves, where they died.
"I thought of nothing - just death," said Vassilis Mitros, 28, among a party who saw the bodies - he counted 24 - early the next morning.
Now the once-lovely hills are burnt to white ash and olive trees like blackened skeletons, planted after death. All but 14 of the 60 homes here were damaged or destroyed; in Artemida, 17 of the 70 houses were lost, though Karta-Paraskevopoulos's house was intact. The region normally produces 10,000 tons of oil, but nearly all the trees are now destroyed, along with countless livelihoods. Charred donkeys and chickens litter ruined farms.
"This village is literally wiped out," Bammi said. "It's not just those who have been killed. Those who are left have no fields to work in, no olive trees. They have nothing to look forward to."
"The new children who grow up in this town will not know what an olive tree looks like," she said.
In late afternoon, Dimopoulos's wife, Maria, 56, decided to lay down a bunch of white daisies on the spot where her cousins, Nikos and Maria Dimopoulos, the brother and sister, both in their 70s, died.
The three of them had been fleeing the fire together when a police officer stopped and urged them to get into his car. Dimopoulos did, but the other two did not want to leave their donkey, their only possession of value.
"I told you, 'Come with me!' " she said, laying the flowers down next to the dead donkey on the side of the road. "You wouldn't come. Why wouldn't you come?"
By Ian Fisher and Anthee Carassava | August 27, 2007
MAKISTOS, Greece: When the water ran out, with pinecones popping and the flames still high around his house, George Dimopoulos switched to wine. He made it himself two years ago, and, nearly alone in his village as it all but burned down Friday night, he poured liter after liter, 200 in all, into his little copper hand-pumped crop sprayer - and sprayed and sprayed.
"I had nothing else," said Dimopoulos, 63.
His wine helped save his life, his house and possibly his neighborhood. But it was an exception in this village and the one next door, Artemida, an area where the death toll from Greece's worst fires in more than a century accounted for nearly half the 63 people now reported to have been killed.
Most of them died on the run. An elderly brother and sister, unmarried and living together, fled with their only donkey and would not leave it. A convoy trying to outrace the flames snarled into a crash, in a fire so hot it liquefied metal and bubbled windshields like grilled cheese. At least 23 people died trying to escape. Medical workers found, in a nearby olive grove fanned over by fire, four children shielded by their mother's body.
These are stories Europe is no longer used to hearing about itself, believing that in the developed world problems like forest fires can be solved. And though southern Europe has been hit with drought this year and high winds spread the flames faster than cars could drive, the government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, heading for elections next month, is facing a crisis over whether it was up to the task of handling the crisis.
A very angry Dimopoulos thinks not, though fire officials began Monday to speak with optimism that, at a minimum, the fires were spreading less rapidly. With houses toppled and scorched all around his, he strapped his crop sprayer to his back again on Monday and began a lesson on how to put out fires.
"Bring Karamanlis here and I will take him by the hair and show him how I did it!" he roared, squirting a bit of water, now available again, on his wood pile.
The government, seeking to deflect criticism, has blamed arson, reportedly arresting seven people for setting various fires, which have flared around the nation, most here on the Peloponnesian peninsula and on Evia island north of Athens. Adding to conspiracy theories blasted over an alarmist Greek media - including the possibility that the fires were started as a hostile act from abroad - a Greek prosecutor Monday ordered an investigation over whether the fires might be prosecuted under the nation's anti-terrorism laws.
Meanwhile, the nation's fire departments and the army continued an all-out effort, aided by other European firefighters and aircraft along with scores of citizen brigades, to get the fires under control. For the first time since the blazes erupted Friday, some progress was reported: While 44 out-of-control fires were reported Sunday, the number dropped by 10 on Monday, aided by the second day of calm winds.
The danger has by no means passed. In the village of Grillos, just over a ridge from here on the western Peloponnesus, a couple that owns a restaurant watched in tears and worry as flames advanced from three directions. Fire trucks spewed water in the flames' path.
"All we need is one of those," said one owner, Iannis Drakopoulos, 72, as a Russian plane carrying a huge bucket of water passed overhead. "If he dropped here, it would all have been fine."
In Artemida and here in Makistos, the flames were already out, and Monday was instead a day for tallying the damage and preparing to bury the dead.
"What is there to say?" asked Efstathios Alexandropoulos in the hilltop cemetery in Artemida. With a small crew of helpers, he and a brother were laying the concrete blocks for a single crypt to hold his son, Phillipos, 6; a niece, Ioanna, also 6; and his mother, also named Ioanna.
Up the hill, workers were preparing the grave for Athanasia Karta-Paraskevopoulos, 35, a teacher born here but who lived in Athens, and the four children she shielded as the flames closed in on them: Angeliki, 15; Maria, 12; Anastassia, about 10; and Constantinos, 5. They had been on vacation.
White marble was being fitted across the cemetery for her brother, Harilaos Karta, 46, a policeman who also lived in Athens.
"Before you could say fire, it was here," Vassiliki Bammi, 62, a resident of Artemida, said in town's ruined square.
She was in the town when the fire hit, and all the descriptions from people who saw it were the same: of flames moving at an unimaginable rate, unexpected despite the winds, and no one apart from the police to help. Fires in the summer are not uncommon here, and there had been sporadic ones in the area. But no one seems to have thought they would suddenly rage out of control.
The fire reportedly came over a ridge first to Makistos, a village of just 60 homes. Antonios Kokkaliaris, an 80-year-old farmer, said he had been reading a newspaper, underline parts he liked, when he heard the bell in St. John's church ring.
"I went out and I saw the flames before me and people running," he said. He could not leave, he said, because his wife, Koula, 82, is severely disabled. He said he took her downstairs. "I told her, 'Stay put, we're going to fight this out.' I grabbed onto the hose and I started dousing, left, right and center."
The town emptied, with only he, a herdsman and Dimopoulos with his wine staying behind. He managed to douse his home, and two next door, well enough that the fires howled past, leaving his house intact. He described the experience as "horror, complete horror."
But when the danger passed, he did not feel relief.
"I was disappointed, honestly," he said. "Because not only was there no one to help me, there was no one in sight. 'Am I just standing here alone? What happened to all my townspeople? What is the purpose of life if I am all alone?' "
The fire quickly ripped into Artemida, about three kilometers, or two kilometers, away. Residents piled into cars down the road toward Zaharo, the area's main town, on the Aegean Sea. Alexandropoulos, at the time in Zaharo, said he heard that the flames reached his village and called his mother, who was taking care of his son, Phillipos.
"I didn't even speak with her," he said. "I just said, 'I'm coming. Get going.' "
"I just didn't make it," he said.
He could not, according to several accounts, because fire swept across the road to the village, blocking off cars. Karta-Paraskevopoulos, her car full of her children and possibly others, turned around along with another car. In the smoke and confusion, there was an accident with other fleeing cars and a fire truck, which rolled over. Everyone in the convoy, several of them elderly, fled up a slope into the olive groves, where they died.
"I thought of nothing - just death," said Vassilis Mitros, 28, among a party who saw the bodies - he counted 24 - early the next morning.
Now the once-lovely hills are burnt to white ash and olive trees like blackened skeletons, planted after death. All but 14 of the 60 homes here were damaged or destroyed; in Artemida, 17 of the 70 houses were lost, though Karta-Paraskevopoulos's house was intact. The region normally produces 10,000 tons of oil, but nearly all the trees are now destroyed, along with countless livelihoods. Charred donkeys and chickens litter ruined farms.
"This village is literally wiped out," Bammi said. "It's not just those who have been killed. Those who are left have no fields to work in, no olive trees. They have nothing to look forward to."
"The new children who grow up in this town will not know what an olive tree looks like," she said.
In late afternoon, Dimopoulos's wife, Maria, 56, decided to lay down a bunch of white daisies on the spot where her cousins, Nikos and Maria Dimopoulos, the brother and sister, both in their 70s, died.
The three of them had been fleeing the fire together when a police officer stopped and urged them to get into his car. Dimopoulos did, but the other two did not want to leave their donkey, their only possession of value.
"I told you, 'Come with me!' " she said, laying the flowers down next to the dead donkey on the side of the road. "You wouldn't come. Why wouldn't you come?"
The Scotsman : Hunt for arsonists as death toll rises to 60
Monday, August 27, 2007
Hunt for arsonists as death toll rises to 60
PETROS GIANNAKOURIS AND PAUL ANASTASI | August 27, 2007
UP TO half of mainland Greece was in flames yesterday with firefighters battling to save the ancient site of the Olympic games and a 2,500-year-old temple of Apollo from wildfires raging through the country.
The death toll rose to at least 58 after five people were killed on the island of Evia, north of Athens, but it was feared many more may have perished in fires so large and intense they were visible from space.
New fires also broke out faster than others could be brought under control.
Officials believe that arson was responsible for many of the blazes and several people had been arrested. The government also announced a reward of up to £500,000 for anyone providing information that would lead to the arrest of an arsonist.
By sea and by land, authorities evacuated hundreds of people trapped by flames in villages and hotels.
To date no major tourist resorts have been threatened and no British holidaymakers have been evacuated.
However, the popular island resorts of Rhodes, Crete, Corfu, Zakynthos, Kos and Santorini have put their firefighting services on alert.
In the early hours of the morning, church bells rang out the alarm in Kolyri and residents gathered their belongings and fled through the night.
They told how the blaze had covered 1¼ miles in just three minutes.
"It's hell everywhere," said resident Costas Ladas. "I've never seen anything like it."
The worst of Greece's fires - there were at least 42 major fronts - were concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in southern Greece and on Evia.
But fires also broke out yesterday in the central region of Fthiotida, one of the few areas that had been unscathed, fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said.
"Fires are burning in more than half of the country," Mr Diamandis said. "This is definitely an unprecedented disaster for Greece."
More than 60 new fires broke out yesterday, although 40 of them were brought under control by last night.
A temporary drop in the high winds yesterday morning provided a brief respite, but they intensified later in the day and the body of a woman was found in the village of Platanos near the village of Olympia and the 2,800-year-old site where the ancient games were held.
The flames reached the edge of the ancient stadium, searing the grass and incinerating the trees on the hill above. Helicopters and aircraft dropped water and foam, covering the ruins. "Our target is for the fire not to enter ancient Olympia, not to destroy antiquities," Mr Diamandis said.
The Culture Ministry said "all necessary measures had been taken" to save the site, and the army had been called in to create a fire break and flames on at least one front had been put out.
"The fire reached the hill overlooking ancient Olympia but was stopped just before entering the archaeological site," said a fire brigade spokesman.
The fire department said some trees in parts of the site had been burned, but that the archaeological museum was safe.
Fire blazed into the nearby village of Varvasaina, destroying several houses. As residents rushed to battle the flames, others, stunned, walked the streets holding their heads in their hands.
Elsewhere in Greece, flames were less than two miles from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios, a 2,500-year-old monument near the town of Andritsaina in the south-western Peloponnese, said the town's mayor, Tryphon Athanassopoulos.
"We are trying to save the Temple of Apollo, as well as Andritsaina itself," he said.
Much of southern Evia had already been consumed by massive fires over the weekend that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people. Yesterday, five people were killed when a fire broke out near Eretria on the western coast.
Several European and Balkan countries, acting under the co-ordination of the European Union, have started to send in teams of firefighters with planes, and helicopters.
The Greek government said help had started arriving from France, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, Serbia, Macedonia, the US and Russia.
Constantine Karamanlis, the Greek prime minister, has declared the entire nation in a state of emergency and national mourning and ordered flags to fly at half staff on government buildings.
The opening of the Greek premier football league, scheduled to start yesterday, was postponed until further notice as were a number of cultural and entertainment events.
Three weeks away from a general election, the government presented the country as under attack by "suspect interests", which it would not specify.
Mr Karamanlis said: "So many fires in different places and at the same time cannot be a coincidence. This is a national tragedy."
But the opposition socialist and communist parties blamed the government for incompetence and delays in taking action.
WORLDWIDE DEVASTATION
THE weather has been causing worldwide havoc.
The US states of Idaho and California have, like Greece, been hit by wildfires, while Ohio, already suffering from flooding, was hit by tornados that left hundreds of thousands with no electricity.
Meanwhile, China, India and Romania have been suffering from severe flooding.
In the US, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for residents of more than 1,000 homes south of Ketchum in Idaho where a massive wildfire raged.
And in California, a seven-week-old wildfire has been burning in Santa Barbara county and a recommended evacuation has been put into effect.
In Ohio, beleaguered residents were picking up the pieces after tornado-bearing thunderstorms knocked out power across the state.
Powerful storms during most of the past week caused disastrous floods from south-eastern Minnesota to Ohio that were blamed for at least 18 deaths.
In China, the official Xinhua News Agency yesterday reported torrential rainstorms had triggered landslides and floods, killing at least 13 people.
In India, nearly 2,000 people have been killed by snake bites, drowning, diarrhoea and in house collapses since July when swollen rivers burst their banks, inundating huge areas in eastern India and Bangladesh. The death toll rose by 74 over the weekend.
Overnight rains also caused widespread flooding in Romania, when rivers overflowed, leaving about 1,400 people stranded in villages and forcing the evacuation of the 17th-century Sambata de Sus Monastery.
The rain followed three days of unusually high temperatures of up to 40C (104F).
PETROS GIANNAKOURIS AND PAUL ANASTASI | August 27, 2007
UP TO half of mainland Greece was in flames yesterday with firefighters battling to save the ancient site of the Olympic games and a 2,500-year-old temple of Apollo from wildfires raging through the country.
The death toll rose to at least 58 after five people were killed on the island of Evia, north of Athens, but it was feared many more may have perished in fires so large and intense they were visible from space.
New fires also broke out faster than others could be brought under control.
Officials believe that arson was responsible for many of the blazes and several people had been arrested. The government also announced a reward of up to £500,000 for anyone providing information that would lead to the arrest of an arsonist.
By sea and by land, authorities evacuated hundreds of people trapped by flames in villages and hotels.
To date no major tourist resorts have been threatened and no British holidaymakers have been evacuated.
However, the popular island resorts of Rhodes, Crete, Corfu, Zakynthos, Kos and Santorini have put their firefighting services on alert.
In the early hours of the morning, church bells rang out the alarm in Kolyri and residents gathered their belongings and fled through the night.
They told how the blaze had covered 1¼ miles in just three minutes.
"It's hell everywhere," said resident Costas Ladas. "I've never seen anything like it."
The worst of Greece's fires - there were at least 42 major fronts - were concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in southern Greece and on Evia.
But fires also broke out yesterday in the central region of Fthiotida, one of the few areas that had been unscathed, fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said.
"Fires are burning in more than half of the country," Mr Diamandis said. "This is definitely an unprecedented disaster for Greece."
More than 60 new fires broke out yesterday, although 40 of them were brought under control by last night.
A temporary drop in the high winds yesterday morning provided a brief respite, but they intensified later in the day and the body of a woman was found in the village of Platanos near the village of Olympia and the 2,800-year-old site where the ancient games were held.
The flames reached the edge of the ancient stadium, searing the grass and incinerating the trees on the hill above. Helicopters and aircraft dropped water and foam, covering the ruins. "Our target is for the fire not to enter ancient Olympia, not to destroy antiquities," Mr Diamandis said.
The Culture Ministry said "all necessary measures had been taken" to save the site, and the army had been called in to create a fire break and flames on at least one front had been put out.
"The fire reached the hill overlooking ancient Olympia but was stopped just before entering the archaeological site," said a fire brigade spokesman.
The fire department said some trees in parts of the site had been burned, but that the archaeological museum was safe.
Fire blazed into the nearby village of Varvasaina, destroying several houses. As residents rushed to battle the flames, others, stunned, walked the streets holding their heads in their hands.
Elsewhere in Greece, flames were less than two miles from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios, a 2,500-year-old monument near the town of Andritsaina in the south-western Peloponnese, said the town's mayor, Tryphon Athanassopoulos.
"We are trying to save the Temple of Apollo, as well as Andritsaina itself," he said.
Much of southern Evia had already been consumed by massive fires over the weekend that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people. Yesterday, five people were killed when a fire broke out near Eretria on the western coast.
Several European and Balkan countries, acting under the co-ordination of the European Union, have started to send in teams of firefighters with planes, and helicopters.
The Greek government said help had started arriving from France, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, Serbia, Macedonia, the US and Russia.
Constantine Karamanlis, the Greek prime minister, has declared the entire nation in a state of emergency and national mourning and ordered flags to fly at half staff on government buildings.
The opening of the Greek premier football league, scheduled to start yesterday, was postponed until further notice as were a number of cultural and entertainment events.
Three weeks away from a general election, the government presented the country as under attack by "suspect interests", which it would not specify.
Mr Karamanlis said: "So many fires in different places and at the same time cannot be a coincidence. This is a national tragedy."
But the opposition socialist and communist parties blamed the government for incompetence and delays in taking action.
WORLDWIDE DEVASTATION
THE weather has been causing worldwide havoc.
The US states of Idaho and California have, like Greece, been hit by wildfires, while Ohio, already suffering from flooding, was hit by tornados that left hundreds of thousands with no electricity.
Meanwhile, China, India and Romania have been suffering from severe flooding.
In the US, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for residents of more than 1,000 homes south of Ketchum in Idaho where a massive wildfire raged.
And in California, a seven-week-old wildfire has been burning in Santa Barbara county and a recommended evacuation has been put into effect.
In Ohio, beleaguered residents were picking up the pieces after tornado-bearing thunderstorms knocked out power across the state.
Powerful storms during most of the past week caused disastrous floods from south-eastern Minnesota to Ohio that were blamed for at least 18 deaths.
In China, the official Xinhua News Agency yesterday reported torrential rainstorms had triggered landslides and floods, killing at least 13 people.
In India, nearly 2,000 people have been killed by snake bites, drowning, diarrhoea and in house collapses since July when swollen rivers burst their banks, inundating huge areas in eastern India and Bangladesh. The death toll rose by 74 over the weekend.
Overnight rains also caused widespread flooding in Romania, when rivers overflowed, leaving about 1,400 people stranded in villages and forcing the evacuation of the 17th-century Sambata de Sus Monastery.
The rain followed three days of unusually high temperatures of up to 40C (104F).
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