August 27, 2007	Monday	Sha’aban 13, 1428

ATHENS, Aug 26: Firefighters battling the forest fires raging in southern Greece on Sunday said the death toll had risen to 56 people, as the culture ministry said the site of Ancient Olympia had escaped the flames.

The disaster already ranks among the world’s deadliest forest fires of the past 150 years.

The latest victims were five people killed on the Aegean island of Euboea, including two volunteer firefighters, said the fire service.

They perished in the central Mystro region near Eretria on the island’s southern coast. Another two people were injured.

Fresh fires had broken out on Sunday afternoon on the centre of the island, burning woodlands and village homes.

Firefighters on the island have been fighting blazes that have destroyed pine forests and olive groves on the south of the island since Saturday and have already evacuated several seaside resorts.

“We are dealing with a national catastrophe without precedent,” said firefighters’ spokesman Nikolaos Diamantis on Sunday, as the national state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis continued.

Three days of national mourning were also declared on Saturday.

Farther south meanwhile, on the Peloponnese peninsula, the flames appeared to have spared the ancient site of Olympia, a UNESCO world heritage site.

“The new archaeological museum has been saved and the flames did not enter the site of Ancient Olympia, where all the anti-fire systems functioned,” Christos Zahopoulos, secretary general of the culture ministry, said.

Earlier, local police said houses were burning in the village of Olympia just next to the site. The Olympia museum and nearby villages had already been evacuated.

Thirty firefighters were battling the fires in the region backed up by a water-bombing plane, three helicopters and 11 vehicles, officials said. Heavy smoke covered the area.

Olympia, in the Peloponnese peninsula, has been inhabited since prehistoric times and in the 10th century BC became a centre for the worship of Zeus, the head of the ancient Greek pantheon.

In addition to temples, there are the remains of all the sports structures erected for the Olympic Games held at the site from 776 BC until the third century AD.

The fires that have swept across the Peloponnese since Friday continued to threaten the region of Kalamata to the south and Pyrgos to the west.

A total of 40 villages on Euboea and the Peloponnese peninsula had so far been evacuated, said a fire services spokesman.

Those fleeing the flames sought refuge on beaches where the authorities provided tents. Financial aid and new lodgings have also been promised.

More than 1,000 firemen backed by 425 soldiers and 16 water-dropping aircraft were battling the fires which have swept through thousands of hectares (acres), destroying homes and ravaging crops and olive groves.

“It’s chaos. Generations of work have gone up in smoke,” said Vassilis Viglas, 65, who had returned to the now-devastated village of Artemida for the summer.

Four Canadair water-bombers and some 60 French firefighters were expected to join the operation on Sunday as well aircraft from Italy and Spain.

Other countries including Germany, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus have offered 14 planes and 10 helicopters, and Greece was in talks with the United States and Russia about how they might help, Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, in a message to the nation on Saturday, blamed arsonists for the fires.

“That so many fires have broken out at the same time in so many places cannot be just chance,” he said.

His government would “do everything in its power to find and punish those responsible”, he added.

Since Friday, police have arrested 10 people suspected either of starting fires deliberately or simply through negligence, including a 65-year-old man and an elderly woman.—AFP