A BIBLICAL DISASTER
A BIBLICAL DISASTER
WILDFIRES that struck ‘like a flamethrower’ have killed at least 76 people in a region of Greece popular with holidaymakers.
More than 180 were injured as the blaze, whipped up by high winds, razed more than 1,000 homes.
Hundreds of terrified adults and children survived only by rushing into the sea, to await rescue by the military hours later. Some drowned as they tried to swim away or flee by boat.
Many children, including at least one baby, were among the dead as infernos described as ‘ biblical’ ripped through swathes of forest in minutes on the Attica peninsula 25 miles east of Athens.
At one site, emergency workers found 26 bodies huddled together. The group had become trapped between cliffs and flames yards from the beach. Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, said: ‘They had tried to find an escape route but unfortunately these people and their kids didn’t make it in time. Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced.’
The blaze struck ‘like a flamethrower’, he said, with many victims suffering from smoke inhalation and skin burns.
Some of worst scenes were in and around the resort of Mati, where recovery teams found charred bodies in the street and rows of burnt-out cars. Witnesses said the occupants fled as the vehicles were engulfed by flames fanned by winds of up to 65mph.
Up to 23 children were said to be among the injured. With many people still missing, it is feared the death toll will exceed 100.
Evangelos Bournous, mayor of the neighbouring coastal town of Rafina, to where many survivors were evacuated by the military, declared that the damage was so bad ‘Mati is gone’. Fires also broke out in Rafina and in the Kineta region, 30 miles west of Athens, as temperatures hit 40C (104F).
British holidaymakers were among those caught up in the mayhem. Some were taken to hospital for check-ups but there were no reports of British fatalities.
The forest fires, Greece’s worst in more than a decade, broke out overnight on Monday and continued to burn last night.
There were reports that they could have been started deliberately by gangs intending to scare residents away and ransack their homes.
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia yesterday to return to Athens. Declaring three days of national mourning, he said of the inferno: ‘We will do whatever is humanly possible to control it.’ Interior minister Panos Skourletis described the fires as a ‘biblical disaster’.
A state of emergency was declared in Attica and the EU began sending help, including firefighters and specialist equipment.
Survivors, some searching for loved ones, told of their ordeal.
Andreaas Passios said: ‘ Everything happened in seconds. I grabbed a beach towel. It saved my life. I soaked it, grabbed my wife and we ran to the sea.’
They stayed in the water for two hours. ‘It was unbelievable. Gas canisters were exploding, burning pine cones were flying everywhere.’
Athanasia Oktapodi, 60, said: ‘I saw the fire move down the hill at around 6pm [on Monday] and five or ten minutes later it was in my garden. I ran out like a crazy person, got to the beach and put my head in the water. Then the patrol boats came.’
George Vokas, whose family escaped by sea but whose house and cars were burnt out, told BBC News that two women he tried to help had died.
‘We’re talking about a biblical catastrophe in this wonderful area of Mati,’ he said.
Spyros Hadjiandreou said: ‘ My niece and cousin were staying here on holiday. I don’t know if they made it out. I don’t know if they are OK. I haven’t heard from them.’ More than 700 people were evacuated by sea by the coastguard, officials said. Military vessels, a flotilla of private boats and army helicopters helped move tourists from the beaches.
One Polish woman and her son were reportedly among ten who drowned when their boat capsized during evacuation attempts off Mati. Three women and a child were also said to have drowned as they tried to swim away from the flames in the resort.
The wildfires are the biggest to hit Greece since 2007, when more than 60 died in infernos that swept the southern Peloponnese region.
‘We ran into the sea’