Wildfires devastating Greece
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A partial drop in gale-force winds early today offered hard-pressed Greek firefighters a brief respite after wildfires raged for two days north of Athens, burning houses and swaths of forest while forcing thousands to evacuate their homes.
Officials warned that the vast blaze was still threatening inhabited areas on the capital’s northern fringes and near Marathon — site of one of history’s most famous battlegrounds.
“There are fewer hazardous points,” Fire Brigade spokesman Yiannis Kappakis said. “But the blaze is still developing.”
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said the fire — one of more than 90 that broke out across Greece over the weekend — was still very hard to tackle.
“The situation remains very difficult,” he said after a fire brigade briefing. “The enormous [firefighting] effort will continue on all fronts throughout the night.”
Firefighters were set to gain a new boost at first light today, when water-dropping aircraft were to resume operations, assisted by aircraft from France, Italy and Cyprus. Nearly 2,000 firefighters and soldiers are engaging the blaze on the ground, together with hundreds of volunteers.
In many afflicted areas, however, despairing residents pleaded for firefighters and equipment that were nowhere to be seen.
Earlier Sunday, thousands of residents of Athens’ northern outskirts evacuated their homes, fleeing in cars or on foot. The fire destroyed several houses as it advanced across an area more than 30 miles in circumference.
Six major fires were burning early today across Greece. The Athens blaze started north of Marathon plain and spread over Mount Penteli — on the city’s limit to the north — threatening outlying suburbs.
Driven by gale-force winds, the blaze grew fastest near Marathon, from which the long-distance foot race takes its name, born from a legendary run after the 490 B.C Athenian victory over an invading Persian army.
One resident, Nikos Adamopoulos, said he had driven over a large part of the area and saw no firefighters.
“The Museum of Marathon is being encircled by fire, and flames are closing in on [the archaeological site of] Rhamnus,” he told The Associated Press. Rhamnus is home to two 2,500-year-old temples.
The mayor of Marathon said he had been “begging the government to send over planes and helicopters” to no avail.
“There are only two fire engines here; three houses are already on fire, and we are just watching helplessly,” Mayor Spyros Zagaris told Greek TV.
Zagaris was among several local leaders who accused the government of having no plan to fight the fire.
Finance Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou responded: “This is not the time for criticism under these tragic conditions. We are fighting a difficult fight.”
Another official said emergency workers were exhausted.
A shift in wind helped halt the flames in the town of Agios Stefanos, a township on the fringes of Athens on the opposite side of Mount Penteli from Marathon. Most of its 10,000 inhabitants had evacuated Sunday afternoon. By nightfall, the town was empty, authorities said.