Greece buries fire victims, hopes for autumn rain

By Michele Kambas

ARTEMIDA, Greece (Reuters) - Sobbing villagers on Sunday buried a Greek mother and her four children who died in destructive forest fires, as the first autumn rains raised hopes of dousing the flames that have killed 64 people.

Storms in northern Greece flooded two villages as firefighters continued to battle blazes in the southern Peloponnese region. Rains were expected across Greece from Sunday night.

"The burnt forests contributed to the floods, which swept cars into the sea," said fire brigade officer Giorgos Minos in the northern Halkidiki peninsula.

In the village of Artemida, perched on a charred Peloponnese mountain, about 200 villagers attended the funeral of the mother found dead still clutching her children, the most shocking image of the inferno's trail of destruction.

"I have run out of tears. Will it bring her and the children back?" said Loukia Papadimitropoulos, 64, one of black-clad villagers who sobbed as a string of hearses carried the white coffins to the village church.

The fires have raged for 10 days, forcing thousands to flee their homes, burning villages and large swathes of forest. On Sunday, an injured man died in hospital, raising the death toll to 64, including 7 firemen.

Greeks Crowd Into Banks, Seeking Cash After Fires

By REUTERS

PYRGOS, Greece, Aug. 30 (Reuters) — Thousands of Greeks besieged banks on Thursday, clamoring for state compensation for damage caused by the country’s worst wildfires, a few of which still burned one week into the crisis.

People were taking advantage of a program granting them an instant $4,000 by showing identification and signing a form at banks in affected areas, a simple procedure the government says shows that it is reacting quickly to the fires, which have killed 63 people.

Critics who condemned the center-right government for what they called its initial inability to prevent or extinguish the fires said its compensation system, instituted less than three weeks ahead of parliamentary elections, was open to widespread fraud.

“Who are all these people?” asked Ourania Fotopoulou, as at least 400 people lined up outside a bank here, a provincial capital in the stricken Peloponnesian peninsula. “I don’t recognize a single one of them and I have lived here all my life.”

Many people in the lines spoke with accents from outside the region, and some admitted that they had come from as far away as Athens and Thessaloniki, which is about 370 miles to the north.

A government spokesman said that the forms would be checked later and that anyone committing fraud would be punished. On Wednesday alone, banks handed over more than $33 million.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis said the simplified system was the right thing. “The order is ‘move fast,’ without any delay,” he said at a news briefing. “We’re removing bureaucratic hurdles. Nothing should stand in the way of us doing our duty.”

The government’s handling of the crisis has become a central issue for Mr. Karamanlis’s campaign as the Sept. 16 election approaches. Kathimerini, a center-right newspaper, said he needed to recover from initial impotence in the face of the fires.

“The first round, that is the fight against the fires, was lost because of the poor performance of the state apparatus,” it said. “The second round, that of reconstruction, has only just begun. It will be an uphill struggle within a tight time frame.” A cartoon in the newspaper showed a helicopter flying over scorched countryside dropping bank notes from a water bucket while the pilot says, “Yes, Prime Minister, as agreed, we’re dropping 100-euro bills so the land will turn green again.”

Vast areas of countryside burned, and more than 500 homes were destroyed by the fires, Europe’s most extensive in a decade, according to the European Space Agency.

On Thursday, some fires raged on, one in the western Peloponnesian peninsula, another on the island of Euboea, north of Athens.

The fires will cost Greece at least $1.6 billion, according to a government minister, and Athens plans to use emergency aid from the European Union. Private citizens have already donated almost $52 million to a disaster relief fund.

This information was gathered from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/0...