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Thousands flee raging wildfires in Greece
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-24 13:39 Six major fires were burning early Monday 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 BC Athenian victory over an invading Persian army. A guard at the nearby Museum of Marathon said the fire at one point came within 50 yards (meters) of the building, whose exhibits include weapons and skeletons from the battle. However, its main front was moving south toward Nea Makri. The fire also threatened the ancient fortress town of Rhamnus, 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. "The firefighters, soldiers and volunteers fighting the fire are tired and their equipment is being used constantly and there is fatigue there too," said deputy Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis.
But both Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga and Giorgos Karatzaferis, head of populist right-wing Popular Orthodox Rally, said the government had learned nothing from the catastrophic summer fires of 2007, when 76 people died and several villages were totally destroyed in southern Greece. 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. About 58 square miles (37,000 acres or 15,000 hectares) of forest, brush and olive groves have burned, according to Athens prefect Yiannis Sgouros. Sgouros said the full extent of the damage would take days to estimate. Authorities evacuated two large children's hospitals, as well as campsites and homes in villages and outlying suburbs threatened by blazes that scattered ash across Athens. The flames also threatened a large monastery on Mount Penteli. Elsewhere in Greece, serious fires were reported on the islands of Evia and Skyros in the Aegean Sea and Zakynthos in the west. Another large fire was raging through a forest near the coastal resort of Porto Germeno in western Attica, but fire officials said no homes were threatened. Eight aircraft were dropping water in the area, the site of one of Greece's best-preserved ancient castles.
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