Deadly fires finally out in Greece

The forest fires that have ravaged southern Greece for the past 11 days, killing dozens of people, were finally extinguished Monday, fire services said. At least 64 people have been killed in the Peloponnese peninsula and other areas and 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of countryside have been destroyed since August 24."Land forces remain on the alert at the scene to prevent any new outbreak," a fire brigade statement said at the end of a day which saw the last blazes conquered near Sparta, in the southern Peloponnese, and on Mount Parnon.The fire service had deployed five water-bombing planes and two helicopters to Mount Parnon, which is difficult to access.Populated areas were not threatened, a fire service spokesman said.Nearly 100 fires per day were occurring on average last week, amid widespread anger that the government did not intervene soon enough and at the scale required.The opposition Socialists (PASOK) have roundly attacked the government's handling of the fires with elections set for September 16. Before the tragedy, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis had appeared set for an easy electoral win.
Karamanlis has blamed arson for at least some of the fires, saying action would be taken against those responsible.
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As in the days of Noah...