Greek Wildfires Threaten Ancient Olympia
Louisa Gouliamaki
A man drives a tractor past burning vegetation
in Platanos, near the site of Ancient Olympia. AFP/Getty Images
NPR.org, August
26, 2007 · Firefighters in southern Greece on Sunday battled
a massive blaze that threatens to destroy the ancient city of
Olympia, the site of the world's first Olympic games.
A large wall of flames was just at the edge of the village of
Ancient Olympia, which stands near the 2,800-year-old site itself.
Police blocked roads, and firefighting planes flew overhead.
"The winds are so strong that I don't know whether the site's
sprinkling system will stop it," said Costas Sofianos, deputy mayor
of Ancient Olympia. Although the sprinkler system was activated,
not all of it appeared to be functioning.
The fire department said some trees at the sprawling site had
burned, but that the museum was safe. The ancient stadium and other
monuments were so far unaffected.
The wildfires have raged for three days, engulfing villages and
forests and killing at least 57 people.
The fires are the worst in Greece in decades. On Sunday, five
people died in a new blaze on the island of Evia, including a woman
whose body was found in a village near Ancient Olympia.
"It's hell everywhere," said Costas Ladas, who said the fire
covered more than a mile in three minutes. "I've never seen
anything like it."
Authorities are using every means possible — by land and sea —
to evacuate hundreds of people who have been trapped by flames in
villages, hotels and resorts.
In the early morning, church bells rang out in nearby Kolyri as
residents gathered their belongings and fled through the night.
Villagers returned to find at least seven gutted houses.
Fotis Hadzopoulos, a resident, said the evacuation was chaotic.
"Children were crying, and their mothers were trying to comfort
them, " he said.
The worst of Greece's fires - 42 major fronts - were
concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in southern Greece
and on Evia north of Athens. New fires also broke out Sunday in the
central region of Fthiotida - one of the few areas that had been
unscathed, fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said.
Arson has been blamed in several cases, and seven people have
been detained.
Although a temporary drop in the ferocity of high winds early in
the morning provided brief respite in Ancient Olympia, they
intensified later in the day.
"Unfortunately the improvement that we were looking for is not
there," Diamandis said. "Our target is for the fire not to enter
Ancient Olympia, not to destroy antiquities."
The Culture Ministry said "all means are being used, and all
necessary measures have been taken" to save the site, and that the
army had been called in to create a fire break.
The fire blazed into the nearby village of Varvasaina,
destroying several houses. As residents rushed to battle the
flames, others, stunned, walked the streets holding their heads in
their hands.
Across the country, churchgoers prayed for the blazes to
abate.
"Fires are burning in more than half the country," Diamandis
said. "This is definitely an unprecedented disaster for
Greece."
Elsewhere, flames were less than two miles from the Temple of
Apollo Epikourios, a 2,500-year-old monument near the town of
Andritsaina in the southwestern Peloponnese, said the town's mayor,
Tryphon Athanassopoulos.
"We are trying to save the Temple of Apollo, as well as
Andritsaina itself," he told Greek television.
A separate blaze had abated Sunday in Kalyvia, an area between
Athens and the ancient site of Sounion to the south.
Nearly 1,000 soldiers, backed by military helicopters,
reinforced firefighters stretched to the limit.
In the ravaged mountain villages in the Peloponnese, rescue
crews on Saturday picked through a grim aftermath that spoke of
last-minute desperation as the fires closed in.
Dozens of charred bodies have been found across fields, homes,
along roads and in cars, including the remains of a mother hugging
her four children.
At least 12 countries were sending reinforcements, and six
water-dropping planes from France and Italy joined operations
Sunday.
The worst-affected region was around the town of Zaharo, south
of Ancient Olympia. Thick smoke, which blocked out the summer sun,
could be seen more than 60 miles away. The blaze broke out Friday
and quickly engulfed villages, trapping dozens of people and
killing at least 37. Scores of people were treated in hospitals for
burns and breathing problems.
The government, which has declared a nationwide state of
emergency, announced Sunday it would offer up to $13,000 to people
who lost relatives or property.
From NPR reports and The Associated Press