Fires Rage Through Greece, 18 Dead

A wave of massive fires raged out of control across Greece, sweeping into mountainous towns and villages and killing at least 18 people in the south, in the country's deadliest forest fire toll in decades.

Rescue crews were checking reports of several other bodies found in a mountain village in the western Peloponnese, fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said early Saturday.

In the capital, a sudden fierce fire broke out during the night in a park in the upscale neighborhood of Filothei, a few miles north of central Athens. Between 10 and 12 fire trucks brought the fire under control within about two hours, the fire department said. The blaze broke out in the middle of the night, and it was unclear what had caused it.

Throughout the day Friday and into the night, 170 fires raged across the country, with blazes reported from the western Ionian islands to Ioannina in northwestern Greece and down to the south. With some fires starting long after dark, authorities said they were investigating the possibility of arson.

A fire on the island of Evia north of the capital grew through the night, and the authorities declared a state of emergency in the area, said Sofia Moutsou, the mayor of the town of Styra.

"If we don't stop this now there will be nothing left," she said on Antenna radio. She was hoping ferries could transport fire trucks to the island to help tackle the blaze.

But the most devastating — and deadly — fires were in the Peloponnese region of the south. Hundreds of people were reportedly trapped by the flames, many in mountainous villages in the western Peloponnese, near the town of Zaharo. That fire, which was too large for the fire department to give accurate details on how many hectares had been burned, killed at least 11 people, including three firefighters, authorities said.

Hot, dry winds gusting to gale force throughout Friday frequently prevented firefighting planes from taking off, leaving mainly ground forces to fight the flames in the southern Peloponnese, occasionally helped by helicopters. No respite was forecast, with strong winds expected to continue, meteorologists said.

"We are living through an unspeakable tragedy today," said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who visited Zaharo late Friday.

With firefighting services stretched to the limit, the military was called in to help.

The government appealed on Friday to European Union countries to "send any help they can," acting Interior Minister Spyros Flogaitis said after an emergency meeting of Greece's civil protection authority.

Five hundred soldiers, as well as several military helicopters, were to join the firefighting efforts at first light Saturday. Dozens of soldiers were already helping battle the flames.

"Our efforts are now focusing on saving human lives wherever there are people trapped, and on limiting the fronts," Diamandis said late Friday.

Apart from the 11 people killed near Zaharo, one more person was found dead in a separate fire near the town of Amaliada to the north, possibly of smoke inhalation, the fire department said.

Across the Peloponnese to the southeast, five people burned to death earlier Friday near a hotel on the outskirts of the town of Areopolis — including two whose charred bodies were found locked in an embrace. Authorities were working to identify the remains. A firefighter also died of a heart attack while battling that fire, Diamandis said.

Across Greece, dozens of houses went up in flames. Residents and local officials called television stations with desperate appeals for help.

One woman in the village of Rodina, near Zaharo, told Antenna television that about 20 people, including children, were trapped in the village.

"We can see the fire in front of us. It's at our feet," said the woman, who did not give her name. "We're choking on the smoke."

Zaharo Mayor Pantazis Chronopoulos said he barely escaped the flames. He said he feared the death toll could increase because several villages were encircled by the fire.

Zaharo Deputy Mayor Andonis Krespis, who was injured in the blaze, spoke on television from his hospital bed, burns on his face covered with cream.

"I counted about seven people dead," Krespis said, adding that the casualties had abandoned their cars and tried to escape the flames through a field, the same way he had managed to get out.

Diamandis said several civilians and firefighters had been injured and were taken to local hospitals, but he could not give an exact number.

Senior health ministry official Panagiotis Efstathiou said hospitals in the region had been put on alert. Television footage showed flames towering above homes on the outskirts of Zaharo, turning the night sky orange.

Greece has suffered its worst summer for forest fires this year, with hundreds of blazes burning thousands of hectares of forest and brushland. With early elections just three weeks away, the devastating fires are almost certain to become a political issue. Karamanlis' government has already come under criticism for its response to previous fires that ravaged Greece earlier this summer. Ten people, including five firefighters, had died in those earlier fires.

A recent three-day heat wave, in which temperatures have touched 104 degrees, has left forests and shrubland parched, and the flames have been fanned by strong winds across Greece.

"We are witnessing a national tragedy," said opposition Socialist party leader George Papandreou. "We look on with anger at these scenes of biblical destruction."