Greek firemen battle Athens forest blaze for second day
Pastor Dale Morgan
Greek firemen battle Athens forest blaze for second day*
ATHENS, July 6 (AFP) Jul 06, 2007
Firefighters on Friday battled a blaze on a mountain overlooking Athens
that is home to a national park and has already been ravaged by forest
fires this summer.
"The fire on Mount Parnitha is under partial control, but we cannot be
sure that it will be extinguished today as there is a lot of wind," a
fire brigade press officer told AFP.
Eighty-five firemen with 15 engines were fighting the blaze, which broke
out on Thursday, he added.
Last week a four-day blaze destroyed at least 4,200 hectares (10,400
acres) of forest on the mountain, nearly half of it national park, the
Greek branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said.
It shocked Greeks as the forest was supposedly among the best protected
in the country, and more than 1,000 people marched in Athens on Tuesday
to protest what they called the lack of government action to put out the
blaze.
The fire was one of more than 100 that broke out across Greece last week
following an exceptionally long heatwave that caused 15 deaths.
After a lull of a few days, blazes are starting up again, and more than
90 have been recorded around the country since Thursday, the fire
brigade said.
Fires are currently raging in two separate areas of central Greece,
Neochori near Pelion and the village of Prodromos in Viotia.
The authorities have placed several regions on high fire alert Friday
because of a strong wind forecast.
On Tuesday, protestors called for Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras,
who is responsible for the fire brigade, to resign over his efforts to
save the smouldering mountain. Another demonstration is scheduled for
Sunday.
But on Thursday Polydoras downplayed the damage, saying that only 2,500
hectares were burnt on the mountain, including 1,000 hectares of park.
The government has pledged to reforest the area, but environmentalists
note that such promises have not been kept in the past.
They point out that widespread illegal construction in burnt-out areas
has tended to be legalised en masse ahead of elections.