Heatwave and Wild Fires take mounting toll on Greece
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday June 30, 3:26 AM
*Heatwave and Wild Fires take mounting toll on Greece*
Hundreds of firefighters and troops on Friday battled forest fires on a
mountain overlooking Athens as Greece's longest heatwave on record
claimed three new victims.
Some 200 firefighters, 300 troops and 14 water-carrying aircraft battled
two fire fronts in Mount Parnitha National Park which continued to burn
after an overnight conflagration that covered many Athens suburbs in ash.
Blazes were raging in another nine locations around the country, but
firefighters were gaining the upper hand in the majority of cases, the
fire department said.
"The situation has improved since morning, most of the fires are under
partial control," a spokesman told AFP.
Rain is expected in some areas tonight, bringing respite after a
heatwave that has seared the country and much of southern Europe since
mid-June, killing 12 people in Greece and more than 50 in other countries.
The government said it had "successfully handled a difficult task" as
there had been no victims from the all-night battle to contain the fire
on the capital's doorstep.
But it came under heavy criticism for failing adequately to protect one
of the few green areas around the heavily polluted Greek capital.
"Athens has lost a valuable ecosystem," the park's head warden, George
Amorgianiotis, told a television station.
"The fire burned around 10 kilometres (six miles) into the park," he said.
Mount Parnitha has 1,100 plant and 42 mammal species and affects the
climate around the capital, the local branch of the World Wildlife Fund said
A military radar station, a casino and summer camps on Mount Parnitha
were evacuated on Thursday, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of
Athens.
But homes near the area are no longer threatened.
The fire fanned across a ridge several kilometres (miles) long, creeping
up the mountain from its western side where a blaze had raged since
Wednesday. Authorities were blamed for failing to predict its course.
"We fumbled that one," said Greek Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras,
admitting on Thursday that the fire department erred in trying to avoid
dropping water near power lines in the area.
Polydoras has suggested that some of the fires that started in recent
days were the work of arsonists.
Fires continued to rage in Schimatari on the Gulf of Evia, in the
central region of Larissa, in the northern peninsula of Halkidiki, on
the islands of Crete and Rhodes, in Eleusis west of Athens, in the
Peloponnese region of Messinia and in the central region of Pelion.
"We hope that it will rain tonight as announced by the weather
forecast," the local mayor of Argalasti, Miltiadis Gaitanas said on
television. "But unfortunately our forests which tourists love so much
are gone."
A new fire started midday Friday on the eastern Aegean islet of Oinousses.
In total, fires have been reported from more than 300 sites across the
country since Wednesday, although most were extinguished, the government
said.
"We have never had so many fires (in three days)," said deputy
government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros.
The fires broke out after a nine-day heatwave with temperatures of more
than 40 C (104 F) described by authorities as the longest recorded in
the country yet, and were fanned by strong winds.
Temperatures began rising beyond seasonal levels on June 19 and on June
26 the Athens Observatory recorded 44.8 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit)
at its Acropolis station, the highest since measurements began there 110
years ago.
"Such weather conditions are unprecedented in over 100 years," Antonaros
said.