Greek Fires Continue Burning Across Country

Just under half a million acres has been burned across Greece in the outbreak of fires between August 24 and 26. Overall, nearly 665,000 acres has been torched this summer in Greece, and there is no relief in sight.

Zorkmidden, whose family hails from Greece and the affect areas, points out the four main theories behind the fires:

These are the scenarios floating around about who's setting the fires:

1. Leftist extremists who want to ensure the government loses in the upcoming elections (this is the government's favourite theory and hence the huge rewards)

2. Land developers who want to build luxury hotels and homes in areas that were forested and therefore off-limits to builders (this is the local mayors' favourite theory)

3. "Foreign elements" (this is the favourite theory of the nationalists and Psomiadis, the governor of Macedonia, keeps repeating this unfounded theory in order to cover his ass - he waited 50 hours to send firefighters from Macedonia to Peloponnisos, 50 hours after they had begged for help from all of Greece.)

4. Some of these fires were set by negligence alone but no one wants to believe this.

From the look of that image, it's not just Greece that's hit with fires. Greece is just the worst affected of the countries. Source.

The fires are also being politicized as parliamentary elections are scheduled for September 16. The socialists are trying to use the failures of the current government to contain and deal with the fires to their advantage.

Meanwhile, farmers and residents of affected areas are dealing with the fires the best they can - improvising. With firefighters stretched to the limits, farmers are taking to desperate measures to save their farms and property - they're using wine to put out the fires.

Assistance has come in from other countries, including a number of aircraft to assist in dropping water and flame retardant on the fires.

Greece has accepted an offer from Spain to provide 2 more Canadairs, bringing the overall total being provided from Europe to 10 Canadairs. Of these, 7 (from France, Italy and Spain) have been deployed since the weekend; and 1 from Portugal arrived yesterday. In addition, Austria has offered 3 Platus Porter DC aircraft. As regards helicopters, Sweden has offered a further two helicopters. In addition, the Czech Republic has offered a Bell 412, Finland has offered 3 helicopters and Romania a type MI-17. These would be in addition to the 10 helicopters already accepted and which continue to arrive.

Cyprus has provided 6 fire-fighting engines and 60 forest fire-fighters. Poland has offered 30 fire fighters and 50 hoses. Finland has also offered to provide a platoon of fire-fighters and Sweden has offered fire-fighting equipment.

Even Israel has sent firefighters to assist in the efforts.

UPDATE:
The current death toll is 63, and several people have been arrested in connection with starting the fires. Some of them appear to be nothing more than negligence, even as the government continues to claim that a concerted effort by arsonists was behind the fires:

Authorities have arrested 11 people on suspicion of starting fires since Friday. These included an elderly man charged with deliberately setting a fire that caused six deaths, a grandmother accused of starting a vast blaze while cooking in her yard and a man who was allegedly careless with a lit cigarette.

The government is offering an award of up to $1.36 million for anyone providing information leading to the arrest "of members of a criminal organization that is seeking to carry out arson in forests, or of deliberate arsonists."

Nantsou said some fires may have been set by prospective developers seeking to build on former forest land -- particularly in high-value coastal areas and near Athens -- warning that forest protection laws are laxly enforced.

"The problem is not so much the law as its enforcement," Nantsou said. "The lack of zoning and forest maps provides a motive to break the law on forests and build illegal buildings."