GREECE: Forest fires sweeping through Greece kill at least 41 people as local residents and firemen fight to put out the flames and save their homes

Forest fires sweeping Greece have killed 41 people in two days and more are feared dead. Firesighters are still battling the fires as some villages still trapped by flames on Saturday (August 25). The government has refered to the blazes as a national tragedy. The fires, which broke out on the southern Peloponnese peninsula on Friday, have expanded to new fronts, fanned by strong winds and soaring temperatures which have also hampered rescue efforts. A police official said at least four more people were feared dead and 40 seriously injured. Rescuers said they found bodies on the side of the road, in burnt homes and in cars, and a mother still clutching her child. Two French tourists were reported to be among the dead. Early on Saturday, emergency workers in Zacharo loaded the bodies of some of the dead into ambulances as local residents looked on distraught. Forest fires also broke out near Athens on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of homes and a monastery and closing the motorway linking the capital to the international airport. A fire department spokesman said two firefighting planes, a helicopter and 20 fire engines were battling the blaze which had advanced to the outskirts of the capital. Fire brigades on Saturday were fighting 87 forest fires in western Greece, the Peloponnese, the island of Evia and the Athens region. Worst hit was the Peloponnese, where dozens of villages have been evacuated but several remain cut off by towering flames. The fires stretch some 160 km (100 miles) from the Ionian Sea in the west to Mani in the peninsula's most southern region. Authorities said 500 soldiers were sent to help. At least 16 firefighting planes and 9 helicopters were combating the flames but strong winds grounded several others. Greece declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Lakonia, Messinia and Ilia - where electricity and phones were largely cut off - and called for urgent help from its European Union partners. The European Commission said France was sending two aircraft on Saturday. Germany had offered three helicopters and Norway one aircraft under a joint firefighting programme. Soaring temperatures, hot winds, drought and arson have been blamed for an upsurge in forest fires this summer in Greece and other parts of southern Europe and the Mediterranean.

ITN Source | August 25, 2007

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