Greece counts cost as firefighters bring fires around Athens under control

Athens: Greece on Aug 14 counted the cost of devastating fires outside Athens that claimed one life, forced thousands to flee their homes and took three days to control.

With the smoke still to clear, civil protection officials said the fires devoured an area of about 10,000ha, destroying about 100 homes as well as other buildings and cars.

While isolated fires still burned, there were no major active blazes, but some 530 firefighters and 145 vehicles were monitoring events, said the fire service.

“The fire is not as intense as it was in the past few days,” a fire service spokesman said. “But there are still a few spots that could cause the fires to flare up again.”

The fire broke out on Aug 11 at Varnavas, near the historic town of Marathon, 40km north-east of Athens.

Investigators think a faulty electricity pole may have been the cause, the Kathimerini newspaper reported.

Strong winds fed the flames, turning it into the worst wildfire this year in Greece.

As the flames approached the suburbs of the capital, teams from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia and Turkey mobilised through an EU scheme to help Greece battle the fires.

The reinforcements have not yet been used in the Athens fire, the fire brigade spokesman said.

With thousands of people forced to flee their homes, several stadiums were opened up to received them. Some 650 people were put up in hotels, the civil protection ministry said.

The government has already earmarked €4.7 million (S$6.8 million) for the eight towns hit by the fires, with pay-outs for households and individuals affected by the disaster.

But there was growing anger over what critics say was a lack of preparedness.

“Understaffed, under-equipped and totally uncoordinated,” Mr Stefanos Kasselakis, leader of the left-wing Syriza opposition party, said of the civil protection service, blaming Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Mr Mitsotakis said after an emergency cabinet meeting on Aug 13: “We’re doing our best to improve every year. But conditions are unfortunately becoming more difficult.”

Around 200 people demonstrated outside Parliament on Aug 13 evening to denounce what they called the government’s “crimes”.

On Aug 14, as Mr Mitsotakis visited a military base to thank pilots who had flown firefighting planes, he highlighted that the government had ordered seven new aircraft.

“The solution won’t just come from the air,” he said, adding that preventative work was also essential.

But the toll of annual fires is growing. According to the meteo.gr website of the National Observatory, 37 per cent of forests around Athens have been consumed by fire over the past eight years.