Deadly fires dominate Greek political debate

updated 8:21 p.m. ET Aug. 28, 2007

ATHENS, Greece - More wildfires broke out and others rekindled Tuesday as anger rose over the government’s handling of catastrophic blazes that have laid waste to vast stretches of the Greek countryside and killed at least 64 people.

The fires are dominating political debate ahead of parliamentary elections set for Sept. 16. Criticism that the government failed to respond quickly enough — and its suggestions that the fires resulted from an organized attack — could hurt Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Foreign firefighters and aircraft joined in battling the fires that first broke out Thursday and burned nearly 500,000 acres in the first three days, leaving behind a landscape of blackened tree trunks, gutted houses and dead livestock.

Firefighting efforts concentrated on the Seta area of Evia island and on the village of Matesi near Zaharo in the western Peloponnese. Another blaze broke out in Grammatiko, near ancient Marathon, but the fire department said that one was under control by nightfall.

Adding to the unease, a magnitude-5 earthquake shook the fire-ravaged south, panicking residents although there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Situation improving in parts
Most of the firefighters sent in by 21 countries were operating in the Peloponnese, fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said. He said 18 planes and 18 helicopters would be used to drop water on blazes in that southern region, where he said the situation was improving.

“The picture we have gives us some optimism,” Diamandis said. “We have a good picture and hope for some good results.”

From the northern border with Albania to the southern island of Crete, fires have ravaged expanses of forest and farmland.

“We have been destroyed, we have nothing left,” cried Katerina Andonopoulou, a 76-year-old woman trudging from the edge of Ancient Olympia to her wrecked house in the nearby village of Platano laden with a bundle of leaves for the five surviving goats from her flock of 20. “Who will help us now?”

The devastation has infuriated Greeks, who already had been stunned by deadly forest fires in June and July and are complaining of an inadequate effort by the conservative government to confront the latest disaster.

Financial aid announced
The Sept. 16 ballot will be “the elections of rage,” the Athens newspaper To Vima said in a front-page headline.

NBC video Fires write a Greek tragedy Aug. 28: NBC’s Maria Menounos returns to her family’s homeland to witness the devastation wrought by wildfires. Nightly News

The government, which declared a nationwide state of emergency Saturday, has announced a series of financial and material benefits and aid for those affected by the fires.

It budgeted some $410 million for immediate relief, although the bill is sure to go higher, the Finance Ministry said.

According to the European Union, 454,447 acres of forest, orchards and scrubland were burned from Thursday through Sunday, raising Greece’s fire toll for the year so far to 664,020 acres. The previous worst year was 2000, when 358,231 acres were blackened around Greece.

“It is at times like these that a society must show its solidarity,” the prime minister, Karamanlis, said. “At this time, all Greeks must be united.”

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