Greek prosecutors have opened an investigation into the cause of devastating forest fires which swept through communities ‘like a flamethrower’ leaving at least 79 dead.
Officials suggested early on that arson may have been to blame for the deadly infernos as it emerged 15 fires started simultaneously in the Athens area as part of moves to ‘destabilise the country’.
But others have dismissed the theory amid claims sparks from pylons caused the disaster. Shell-shocked authorities have also been accused of a slow response to the gale-driven fires, which laid waste to an entire village in a matter of minutes.
Dozens are still missing – including nine-year-old twin girls and an Irish newlywed – as emergency crews started the grim job of sifting through the charred remains of hundreds of homes and cars in fire-hit areas. Desperate family members have taken to social media to post pictures of their loved-ones – but ambulance officials have said there is little hope of finding anyone alive in burnt out buildings.
Many of the dead were found in the resort of Mati, 25 miles east of the capital, where horrified rescuers found the burnt remains of families huddled together near a cliff. Others died trying the escape in their cars or having failed to leave their homes in time with many reportedly drowned after leaping into the sea.
Emergency crews were stretched to the limit overnight with some 200 firefighters tackling a second forest fire west of Athens, where local authorities pre-emptively evacuated three nearby communities. The death toll has now surpassed the 77 killed in 2007 on the southern island of Evia.
Greek prosecutors have opened an investigation into the cause of devastating forest fires which swept through communities ‘like a flamethrower’ leaving scores dead. Fire crews were still battling fires in the Kineta area near Athens last night
Officials suggested early on that arson may have been to blame for the deadly infernos as it emerged 15 fires started simultaneously in the Athens area as part of moves to ‘destabilise the country’. An aerial view shows the devastation caused by the fire which raged through forests outside the village of Mati before consuming hundreds of houses
Flames continued to rage as firefighters battled to quell the wildfire at the village of Kineta, near Athens. The blazing fire has so far claimed scores of lives, including a mother and son from Poland
Desperate families have released pictures of missing loved-ones as rescuers sift through the charred remains of houses looking for survivors
There was no official indication Wednesday as to how many people might be missing, and some people took to social media and Greek television stations with appeals for information on their loved ones. The death toll was expected to increase as crews searched more of the areas affected by the fires.
Many people fled to the sea to try to escape the flames as they tore through towns near Athens stoked by high winds, reducing pine forests to ash and devouring hundreds of buildings.
The disaster has been described in Greece as a ‘national tragedy’, while Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia and announced three days of national mourning.
The government has not yet said how many people are still missing from the fires, which broke out on Monday, as firefighters continue to battle blazes in some areas.
Miltiades Milonas, vice president of the Greek ambulance service, said: ‘Unfortunately, at this stage we do not expect to find more people injured, only more dead.’
Officials raised the possibility the blazes could have been started deliberately by criminals out to ransack abandoned homes.
‘I am really concerned by the parallel outbreak of these fires,’ Tsipras said as supreme court prosecutors announced they had opened an investigation into the causes of the fire. Government officials claimed this may have been part of moves to destabilise the country.
But some say an absence of an emergency evacuation plan and an unprepared state mechanism were the main culprits behind the tragedy.
A ‘seasoned firefighter’ told Kathimerini that the Fire Service, the Attica Regional Authority and the General Secretariat for Civil Protection were to blame for a slow response to the ‘mega fire’ – despite the highest Level 4 fire risk warning being issued over the weekend in the Attica region.
Aftermath: A man stands next to his burned house and car as he speaks in Mati, east of Athens. Rescuers are sifting through the remains of buildings and cars today
Paradise lost: Pictures show the charred remains of a family summer camp in Mati with an eating and barbecue area completely destroyed by fire
Images taken inside some of the burnt out buildings show the power of the inferno as it swept through the community in a matter of minutes
Rescue workers in Greece scoured charred homes and burned-out cars on Wednesday as the toll from some of the worst wildfires this century was expected to rise from at least scores dead and 187 hurt
Greek media have described the disaster as a ‘national tragedy’, while Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia and announced three days of national mourning.
Sources told the website that the Kineta blaze, west of Athens, was started by sparks seen coming from power pylons.
Residents and terrified holidaymakers were overtaken by the flames in homes, on foot or in their cars. AFP photographers saw the burnt bodies of people and dogs.
The charred bodies of 26 people, including small children, were discovered at a villa at the seaside resort of Mati, 25 miles northeast of Athens, said rescuer Vassilis Andriopoulos.
They were huddled together in small groups, ‘perhaps families, friends or strangers, entwined in a last attempt to protect themselves as they tried to reach the sea’, he said.
As world leaders including Pope Francis affirmed their solidarity, Athens said 308 engineers would arrive on site by Wednesday to assess the damage.
But ‘the problem is what is still hidden under the ashes,’ said emergency services vice president Miltiadis Mylonas.
An Irish bride on her honeymoon was injured in the Greek fire tragedy and her new husband was still missing last night.
Zoe Holohan and Brian O’Callaghan-Westropp were married in Ireland just last Thursday and had been honeymooning close to Mati.
The couple were being driven away from the fires which ravaged the town when Zoe, who works at Independent News & Media, and Brian, an operations and HR manager in Dublin, were separated.
Zoe Holohan and Brian O’Callaghan-Westropp were married in Ireland just last Thursday and had been honeymooning close to the town of Mati, the worst-affected area in an inferno that killed at least 76 people
The mother and son from Poland were among the dead when the vessel flipped in the water amid rough seas after picking up guests from a hotel in Mati as forest fires tore through the resort, 25 miles from Athens.
150 firefighters were on the site with 74 firetrucks, and were being supported with firefighting planes and helicopter. Despite this strong winds and parched conditions have made for perfect conditions for the wildfire
Dashing to the water was the only way to escape for most villagers, but some – including families with children found clasped in a last embrace – perished behind a wall of flames and toxic smoke as the ‘lightning quick fire’ swept from the hillsides to the sea in less than ten minutes. Firefighters have been attempting to tackle the blaze for hours as strong winds make their job harder
Scores are dead after a series of wildfires in Greece. The resort of Mati, 25 miles from Athens, has been left devastated and rows of cars were destroyed as fierce fires swept through the area in a matter of minutes
Dashing to the water was the only way to escape for most villagers – but many perished behind a wall of flames and toxic smoke
She received burn injuries in the fire but was last night being treated at a local hospital, while family and friends were waiting anxiously for news of Brian’s whereabouts.
The couple had been dating for a few years before Brian popped the question to Zoe in Portugal last year.
A Greek father is appealing for help locating his missing twin daughters, who he says he spotted alive in TV news footage showing people getting off a fishing boat that had rescued them as they fled.
Yiannis Philipopoulos said early Wednesday that he and his wife recognized the nine-year-old girls Sophia and Vasiliki in the TV news footage after they spent a fruitless day searching for them at area hospitals and law enforcement agencies. He said the girls went missing along with their grandparents amid the wildfires that engulfed popular resort spots near the Greek capital.
Philipopoulos’ search highlights the plight of many families looking for relatives. Many people went into the sea to avoid approaching flames and where picked up by rescue boats. There is no definitive count on the missing.
Philipopoulos said in an appearance on the private television stations Skai and Alpha that the footage gave him hope that his children are alive. He urged anyone with information to contact him.
The captain of the rescue boat said authorities recorded the names of rescued people as they disembarked.
One Belgian was among the victims, said Belgium’s foreign minister Didier Reynders, while in Warsaw Poland’s government said a Polish woman and her son also died.
Some 187 people have been hospitalised, with 82 still being treated on Tuesday evening, including almost a dozen children, most of whom were in a ‘serious condition’, the fire services said.
Dramatic video footage showed people fleeing by car as the tourist-friendly Attica region declared a state of emergency.
Athanasia Oktapodi, whose home is surrounded by pine trees, said she first spotted the fire moving down the hill ‘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,’ said the 60-year-old.
Fire service spokeswoman Stavroula Maliri said firefighters were still searching for more victims and taking ‘dozens of calls’ from people looking for relatives.
Winds of above 60 mph in Mati caused a ‘sudden progression of fire’ through the village, said Maliri.
‘Mati no longer exists,’ said the mayor of nearby Rafina, Evangelos Bournous, adding that more than a thousand buildings and 300 cars had been damaged.
Pictures show the scale of the inferno which swept through the Rafina area overnight, fanned by strong winds and high temperatures
‘I saw the flames outside the window of our hotel. I thought it would explode,’ said Alina Marzin, a 20-year-old German tourist who had been staying at the Capo Verde hotel in Mati on Monday evening with her brother and their parents.
At least six people died trying to escape the flames into the sea. Some 715 people were evacuated by boats to Rafina, the government said.
‘People are shocked, lost. Some of them have lost everything: children, parents, homes,’ said Red Cross spokeswoman Georgia Trisbioti.
The European Union activated its Civil Protection Mechanism after Greece sought help. Several countries said they were sending aircraft to help fight the flames.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted the EU ‘will spare no effort to help Greece and the Greek people’, while Pope Francis spoke of his ‘deep sadness,’ sentiments echoed by EU and NATO leaders.
NATO head Jens Stoltenberg offered the alliance’s full solidarity with Greece, whose government earmarked financial aid for victims’ relatives.
Interior Minister Panos Skourletis said the priority was to extinguish a fire still burning in Kineta, 50 kilometres from Athens.
Near the town of Marathon, residents fled to safety along the beach, while 600 children were evacuated from holiday camps.
Showers were set to see temperatures around Athens drop slightly after hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
The wildfires come as record temperatures in northern Europe have seen blazes cause widespread damage in recent days.
Sweden, experiencing an unprecedented drought and the highest temperatures in a century, has counted more than 20 fires across the country.
Fires have also hit Finland’s northernmost Lapland province.
Norway, which experienced its hottest May temperatures on record, has seen several small fires. One firefighter was killed on July 15 trying to contain a blaze.
Fires have raged for five days in Latvia, destroying more than 1,000 hectares in the Baltic state.