Greek forest fires continue to burn

Forest fires continued to burn in parts of southern Greece while the other main fronts of a series of massive fires have been extinguished, Greece's fire service said.

Fires on Mt Parnon and Mt Taygetos, in the south-eastern Peloponnese, were still burning as strong winds and dry conditions kept fire officials on high alert. Fire Department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said major fires in three other provinces of the Peloponnese had been put out.

The official death toll rose to 65 on Sunday when a seriously burned man on the island of Evia died in a hospital.

Meanwhile the government announced that urgent flood-control measures would be implemented in fire-devastated regions, mainly in the Peloponnese and on the island of Evia, and that prefabricated houses were being distributed by truck to the worst-hit areas.

After months of successive heat waves and no rain, heavy rainstorms have flooded parts of northern Greece. Rain and cooler weather were expected to move south early this week, helping firefighters in their efforts to extinguish any remaining blazes and prevent the possibility of smouldering fires rekindling. However, officials also fear that heavy rains could hamper relief efforts and lead to flooding.

Over a 10-day period, an estimated 4,000 people saw their homes destroyed by the wildfires, which also charred an estimated 469,000 acres of mostly forest and farmland and ravaged the area around the world heritage site of Ancient Olympia.

The fires have prompted a massive relief effort, although Greece's conservative government has faced strong public criticism for its allegedly slow response to the crisis. The public has also responded with massive donations of clothes, food and money.

Conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who faces general elections on September 16, was in the southern town of Tripolis as he continued to survey fire-damaged areas, as did other political party leaders.

The area around Artemida has been badly burnt by the fires

Last Main Greece Fire Is Contained

By DEREK GATOPOULOS
The Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece -- The last major fire in southern Greece has been brought under control after flaring up again over the weekend, fire officials said Sunday.

Officials also said two other big fires were completely extinguished, leaving only minor fires smoldering in the area.

The blazes had been largely contained for several days but firefighters struggled to prevent them from rekindling and causing more damage. Two villages were evacuated and 23 people were rescued by helicopter Saturday after one fire restarted in Greece's southern Peloponnese region.

Nine firefighting planes and two helicopters helped contain that blaze on Mount Parnon Sunday. Two other fires outside the towns of Megalopoli and Karytaina were out.

Meanwhile, rain was reported across much of northern Greece, with flooding on the Halkidiki peninsula, but it had not reached any areas affected by fires.

Fires have destroyed an estimated 469,000 acres of mostly forest and farmland over the past 10 days, prompting a massive relief effort but also criticism of Greece's government for allegedly responding to the crisis slowly and failing to safely evacuate villages before they were burned.

The death toll rose to 65 Sunday after a man seriously burned in a fire on the island of Evia died in a hospital.

Also Sunday, funeral services were held for a mother and her four children who were killed outside the southern village of Artemida while trying to flee the fires by car on Aug. 24. Four other people also died in the same convoy of cars when it became trapped in flames.

Authorities have not released any damage assessment, but an estimated 4,000 people lost their homes, according to independent estimates based on claims for assistance by individuals and local authorities.

A man herds sheep away from a fire in the village of Kiparissia about 230 kilometers (158 miles) southwest of Athens, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso toured fire damaged areas in southern Greece by helicopter, and promised aid to relieve areas where 64 people died and an estimated 190,000 hectares (469,000 acres) of mostly forest and farmland were destroyed. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)


Information gathered from:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/w...

Main fires out; death toll rises to 65

The Associated Press Published: September 2, 2007


ATHENS, Greece: Three major fires that ravaged southern Greece for 10 days have been put out or brought under control, the Fire Service said Sunday.

The fires destroyed an estimated 190,000 hectares (469,000 acres) — most of it forest and farmland — prompting a massive relief effort but also criticism of Greece's conservative government for failing to safely evacuate villages before they were burned.

The death toll rose to 65 on Sunday when a man seriously burned in a fire on the island of Evia died in a hospital.

Authorities have not released any damage assessment, but an estimated 4,000 people lost their homes according to independent estimates based on claims for assistance by individuals and local authorities.

A Fire Service briefing report Sunday confirmed that two major fires were out and one in the southern Peloponnese region was contained.

Fires outside Megalopoli and Karytaina in the southern Peloponnese region were extinguished, the fire service said, while nine fighting planes and two helicopters had helped contain a blaze on Mount Parnon, further south.



Elsewhere in the region, six planes and four helicopters were involved in containing several other fires, all of which were described as "receding," the agency said.

Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras said on Sunday, "I am in the happy position to announce ... that all the (main) fires have been put out."

Conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who faces general elections on Sept. 16, continued to survey fire-damaged areas, flying by helicopter over the island of Evia.

On Saturday, he flew over the Peloponnese with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who repeated European Union promises to provide Greece financial aid — likely to include €200 million (US$237 million) in emergency assistance and possibly a further €400 million (US$546 million) later.

"No one can remain the same after such events," Karamanlis was quoted as saying in an interview published Sunday in the Athens daily Kathimerini. He blamed the fires on arsonists.

"So many fires breaking out at the same time in different places. This cannot be a coincidence," Karamanlis said, reiterating his comments of last week.

A GPO poll for private Mega television gave the conservatives 37.4 percent approval, a 1.4 point lead over the opposition Socialists, based on a survey of 1,005 people questioned Friday. No margin of error was given. The conservatives won the 2004 elections with a 4.8-point advantage.

All Major Blazes Under Control

(08-31) 07:47 PDT ATHENS, Greece (AP) --

All major blazes in Greece were under control Friday, and firefighters were working to extinguish smaller fires in the southern part of the country.

One week after hundreds of wildfires broke out across Greece, killing 64 people and costing the country at least $1.6 billion, the fire department said the last major fire near the town of Kato Kotyli "no longer has an active front and is receding."

But it warned in an announcement that just because "we are in a phase where fires are receding, that does not mean that the danger has been eliminated."

Meanwhile, thousands of people lined up outside banks for a third day to receive emergency aid, and the government said 20,000 people received a total of $98 million since banks started to hand out the funds Wednesday.

But officials said they would tighten checks on the fast-track aid process after at least 15 people were arrested in the southwestern city of Pyrgos for allegedly making false claims.

Initial government estimates indicate at least 1,500 homes were gutted in the southern Peloponnese peninsula and on the island of Evia, just north of Athens. But there are concerns that figure could double. At least 4,000 people were left homeless, but that number also could double.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who faces a close race for re-election in less than three weeks, promised to rebuild all homes destroyed by the fires through a new disaster relief fund made up of state and private contributions. He said homeless families would initially be provided with prefabricated homes.

Karamanlis did not say how much that would cost.

The European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hubner, flew over the burned regions Friday to assess how much aid Greece needed. She said after meeting Karamanlis that Greece would probably receive $237 million in emergency aid and could be eligible for another $546 million, depending on the damage caused by the fires.

"The European Commission is determined to explore all possible means of support and assure the mobilization of available funds in order to help," she said.

A help line set up for fire victims and offers of help has received tens of thousands of calls, mostly from people who want to contribute aid. Government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said private donations from Greeks has amounted to more than $52 million. The government has so far budgeted around $450 million for such aid.

The fires are dominating political debate before the Sept. 16 elections. Criticism that the government failed to respond quickly enough — and its suggestions the fires resulted from an organized attack — could hurt Karamanlis.

A series of polls have indicated that the conservatives had a razor-thin margin over George Papandreou's main opposition Socialist Party.

Greek Fires Start to Subside

ATHENS, Greece, August 29, 2007 (ENS) - Firefighters are beginning to gain ground against the worst forest fires to strike Greece in more than a century, but only after the blazes claimed 64 lives and charred much of Ilia prefecture on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece.

The country remains in the state of emergency and suspicion is rife that arsonists are to blame for more than half of the wildfires. To date, seven people have been arrested and charged with arson, including one person who is accused of setting fires at Zacharo, a village in Ilia where 37 people perished last week trying to escape the flames.

Two new wildfires broke out in northwest Ioannina prefecture today, and some large fires are still burning, but many others have been doused by firefighters and aircraft from across Europe. Greek firefighters are getting reinforcements of about 120 men from Cyprus, France and Israel.

Wednesday, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis expressed the gratitude of all Greeks to the firefighters and called them heroes.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis promises cash to fire victims. (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

Quick cash was made available to anyone who declared they had been harmed by the fire by Karamanlis' conservative government concerned about retaining power in elections slated for September 16.

The prime minister said emergency allocations of 3,000 euros (US$4,096) per affected household were to be made "without delay," upon only "a simple solemn statement of the beneficiary, with only one signature."

Greeks have suffered enough, he said, without being made to suffer more by bureaucratic processes.

Banks are offering debt forgiveness for those who have lost close relatives or suffered major losses of property. Credit card and loan payments are being deferred for borrowers in fire-ravaged areas.

Main opposition leader George Papandreou, visited Zacharo on Saturday, but refrained from criticizing the government. His party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, suspended its weekend campaigning and pledged 30 percent of the party's election funds to people hurt by the wildfires in the Peloponnese.

Wildfires have plagued Greece since July, but since Thursday at least 190 fires broke out across southern Greece, and also near Athens, Sparta and other cities. Fire singed the edges of ancient Olympia, site of the first Olympic games, but was stopped before the ancient monuments were destroyed.

Firefighters are still battling blazes across southern Greece and on Evia island, off eastern continental Greece, and fire officials fear the rekindling of wildfires where they already have been doused.

Some villages on the Peloponnese peninsula are still being evacuated today. Homes in more than 100 villages were destroyed and many families lost livestock and olive trees. Damages are estimated in the billions of euros.

Silent demonstrators outside the Greek Parliament building in Athens. August 29, 2007 (Photo by Constantin)

In Athens, thousands of people gathered outside the parliament buildings in protest of the government's slow and inadequate response to the fires. They expressed resentment at the "false statements of Karamanlis" from this past March that supposedly Greece was ready to face fires expected in the summer, while the government allocated only "minimal means" to fight them.

Weather conditions, including record summer temperatures and hot dry winds, have made Greece and southern Italy a tinderbox, said the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Greece has experienced more wildfire activity this August than other European countries have over the last decade, according to data from sensors aboard European Space Agency satellites.

Working like thermometers in the sky, the sensors measure thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth's land surfaces. Data from July 1996 to August 28, 2007 were used to plot the number of fires occurring monthly. Results show Greece has had four times the number of fires this August as were burning in August 1998.

Burned over land at Zacharo, where 37 people died trying to flee last week. (Photo credit unknown)

The data from these sensors is compiled to create the ATSR World Fire Atlas, which provides data to online users approximately six hours after acquisition. All available satellite passes are processed for the atlas.

In addition to maps, the time, date, longitude and latitude of the hot spots are provided. The data are meant to be used for research and especially for fire prevention and management.

But a report today in the "Economist" says Greek forestry officials were hampered by "lack of access to satellite pictures that could have enabled fire-fighters to find and douse blazes before they caused serious damage."

In 2000, the European Space Agency and the French space agency formed the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, which rapidly creates tasks for earth observation satellites and delivers the resulting spacemaps to emergency response and civil protection authorities anywhere in the world.

Finally today, the Hellenic national mapping and survey agency, part of the Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, requested spacemaps of the Greek fires from the International Charter.

Information gathered from:
http://www.ens-newswire.com...