World

Forest Fires In Greece Ease Up, Tension Mounts

by Yuliya Talmazan | August 24, 2009 at 04:00 pm

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On Monday, severe forest fires eased up near the Greek capital, but the fallout from the fires has been negative. Forest fires have been raging for four days outside Athens. Three hundred firefighters and soldiers were deployed to fight the fires. No casualties have been reported, but a state of emergency has been declared nonetheless. Victims of the fires say the Greek government has been too slow to react. International help was summoned last week to fight the fires.

Tens of thousands have temporarily fled their homes, and more than 37,000 acres of land — including some of the last forest near the capital city — has gone up in smoke.

At least 150 homes have also been damaged, although, so far, there have been no casualties.

As the winds eased early Monday, exhausted Greek fire fighters gained the upper hand against the worst of the fires with the help of newly arrived reinforcements from Italy, France and Cyprus.

Greece's government has defended its response to both the 2007 blaze and this weekend's, saying that fires are inevitable and that it responds to them as quickly as possible Government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros told a press conference on Monday that efforts had been "well coordinated."