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ATHENS,Greece-Firefighters rushed helicopters and buses Monday to evacuate more than two dozen villages threatened by towering walls of flames that had killed 63 people while ravaging swaths of forest and farmland in Greece's worst wildfire disaster in memory.Four days of devastating blazes from the northern border with Albania to the southern island of Crete unnerved and angered Greeks, drawing strong criticism of the government's response and setting off widespread suspicions and finger-pointing.The government, which declared a state of emergency, implied the destruction could be part of an orchestrated campaign of arson. But environmental experts expressed skepticism.People used garden hoses, buckets, tin cans and branches in desperate-and sometimes futile-attempts to beat back flames and save their homes and livelihoods.Frightened people called television stations pleading for help from the beleaguered fire service, and helicopters or vehicles were sent to several villages to evacuate threatened residents, although some insisted on staying to fight the flames.A helicopter flew five people out of Prasidaki in southern Greece,fire department spokesman Yiannis Stamoulis said. Another was sent to the village of Frixa, but residents there refused to leave, he said.The destruction was so extensive that authorities said they had not had time to tally the amount of burned land-or the number of people injured. Sixty-three people were known dead.A woman and her four children killed Friday, their charred bodies found with the woman's arms around the youngsters, might have been safe if they had stayed at home. It was the only house left untouched in the village of Artemida in the western Peloponnese. The house's white walls and red tile roof were unscathed, surrounded by blackened earth.Fanned by strong, hot winds, flames raced through grass and trees parched by three heat waves since June. Fires engulfed villages, forests and farms and scorched woodland around Ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games.New fires broke out faster than others could be brought under control, leaving behind a devastated landscape of blackened tree trunks, gutted houses and charred animal carcasses.The destruction and deaths infuriated Greeks, who already had been stunned by deadly forest fires in June and July, and the disaster appeared likely to dominate political debate before parliamentary elections September 16. Many people said the government did not react quickly enough....To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
