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Business News/ Politics / Hundreds flee wildfire torching homes near Athens
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Hundreds flee wildfire torching homes near Athens

Hundreds flee wildfire torching homes near Athens

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Athens: Wildfires torched scores of homes and thousands of acres of forest in the outskirts of Athens on Sunday and sent hundreds of residents fleeing their homes, authorities said.

Thick plumes of smoke hung over the Acropolis as the flames, fanned by strong winds, raged unchecked for a second day, testing state resources and the conservative government, which is facing a snap election by March.

Hundreds abandoned their homes overnight as the blaze reached residential communities around Athens. Many were frantically trying to stop the flames from reaching houses with garden hoses and tree branches.

“We are facing a great ordeal," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said. “The fire department is making a superhuman effort."

The handling of the fire, the biggest since Greece’s worst wildfires in living memory killed 65 people in a 10-day inferno in 2007, will be crucial for his political fate as snap polls loom. His government, which is clinging to a one-seat majority in parliament, trails the socialist opposition in opinion polls.

Greek authorities declared a state of emergency in eastern Attica on Saturday where the flames seared about 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) of forest, farming fields and olive groves.

“More than 120,000 stremmas (30,000 acres) have been burnt. It is an ecological disaster," Athens prefect Yiannis Sgouros told Greek television.

Greece has asked its allies for help and five fire fighting aircraft from Italy, France and Cyprus were expected to arrive on Sunday, fire officials said.

Emergency meeting

Karamanlis made a helicopter tour of the afflicted area on Sunday and chaired a emergency government meeting as the Greek weather service warned winds were not expected to abate before Monday night, hindering fire fighting efforts.

“The situation is extremely difficult due to the weather conditions," Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos told reporters after the meeting.

Greek officials and eyewitnesses said the fire had reached the suburbs of Aghios Stefanos, Anthoussa, Pallini, Pikermi and Dionyssos and that there were people refusing to leave their property as flames approached.

“The destruction is enormous," Aghios Stefanos deputy mayor Panagiotis Bitakos told Greek television. “They allowed one fire to destroy all of Attica."

The fire broke out late on Friday in the village of Grammatiko about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of the Greek capital and quickly spread to neighbouring villages and Athens suburbs. A children’s hospital and a home for the elderly were evacuated.

Police and witnesses said scores of homes were heavily damaged but the fire brigade declined to give official data until the blaze was put out.

Twelve aircraft, seven helicopters, 132 fire engines and about 600 firefighters were battling the blaze, fire officials said. Some 340 soldiers were also dispatched to the fires.

Gale-force winds have fanned more than 100 blazes across Greece in the last three days. Fires also raged on the islands of Zakynthos, Evia, Skyros, and the central Greek Viotia area. A fire on the Dodecanese island of Rhodes was under control.

Fires are frequent in Greece in the summer, often caused by high temperatures and winds, drought or arson. Hundreds of fires raged across southern Europe in July, destroying thousands of hectares of forest and gutting dozens of homes.

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Published: 23 Aug 2009, 04:32 PM IST
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