An overnight drop in gale-force winds offered hard-pressed Greek firefighters a brief respite yesterday after wildfires raged unchecked for two days north of Athens, burning houses and swathes of forest while forcing thousands to flee their homes.
But the winds were forecast to resume by midday, whipping flames up to 10m high through highly flammable pine forests.
Fire Brigade officials cautioned that the fires still threatened inhabited areas on the capital’s northern fringes, the eastern coastal town of Nea Makri and nearby Marathon — site of one of history’s most famous battlegrounds.
PHOTO: AP
“There are fewer hazardous points,” Fire Brigade spokesman Yiannis Kappakis said. “But the blaze is still developing.”
Several houses have been gutted but there were no reports of deaths or injuries in what the Fire Brigade is calling a “mega-wildfire.” There was huge damage to the countryside, however, with thousands of hectares of the area’s rapidly dwindling forests gone.
In Nea Makri, south of Marathon, local authorities said a blaze stretching for 4km was tearing down a hillside toward some houses, and a dozen nuns were evacuated from a nearby Christian Orthodox convent.
“The situation is tragic right now, there’s a huge fire coming our way” Nea Makri Mayor Iordanis Louizos said. “There is nothing we can do ... but wait for the [water-dropping] planes at dawn.”
Officials said 17 water-dropping planes and helicopters resumed operations at first light yesterday, while aircraft from France, Italy and Cyprus were due to join in the effort.
More than 2,000 firefighters, soldiers and volunteers are fighting the blaze on the ground.
Officials have not said what started the fire. Hundreds of forest blazes plague Greece every summer and many are set intentionally — often by unscrupulous land developers or animal farmers seeking to expand their grazing land.
In many afflicted areas, despairing residents pleaded for firefighters and equipment that were nowhere to be seen.
On Sunday, thousands of residents of Athens’ northern outskirts evacuated their homes, fleeing in cars or on foot. The fire destroyed several houses as it advanced across an area more than 50km in circumference.
Six major fires were burning early yesterday across Greece. The Athens blaze started north of Marathon plain and spread over Mount Penteli — on the city’s limit to the north — threatening outlying suburbs.
Driven by gale-force winds, the blaze grew fastest near Marathon, from which the long-distance foot race takes its name, born from a legendary run after the 490BC Athenian victory over an invading Persian army.
A guard at the nearby Museum of Marathon said the fire at one point came within 45m of the building, whose exhibits include weapons and skeletons from the battle. However, its main front was moving south toward Nea Makri.
The fire also threatened the ancient town of Rhamnus, home to two 2,500-year-old temples.
The mayor of Marathon, Spyros Zagaris, said he had been “begging the government to send over planes and helicopters” to no avail.
“There are only two fire engines here; three houses are already on fire and we are just watching helplessly,” Zagaris told Greek TV.
Zagaris was among several local leaders who accused the government of having no plan to fight the fire.
Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou responded: “This is not the time for criticism under these tragic conditions. We are fighting a difficult fight.”
Another official said emergency workers were exhausted.
“The firefighters, soldiers and volunteers fighting the fire are tired and their equipment is being used constantly and there is fatigue there too,” Deputy Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis said.
Opposition politicians have been restrained in their criticism so far.
But both Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga and Giorgos Karatzaferis, head of populist right-wing Popular Orthodox Rally, said the government had learned nothing from the catastrophic summer fires of 2007, when 76 people died and several villages were totally destroyed in southern Greece.
A shift in wind helped halt the flames in the town of Agios Stefanos, a township on the fringes of Athens on the opposite side of Mount Penteli from Marathon. Most of its 10,000 inhabitants had evacuated on Sunday afternoon.
About 15,000 hectares of forest, brush and olive groves have burned, Athens prefect Yiannis Sgouros said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese