8/14/2019 Thesun 2009-08-25 Page10 Wildfire Rages Near Athens Thousands Flee

1/1

newswithout borders10 theSun | TUESDAY AUGUST 25 2009

Wildfire rages near

Athens, thousands fleeATHENS: A huge wildfire fanned by strongwinds cut a swathe of destruction near Athenson Sunday, burning houses, razing large patchesof forest and sending thousands fleeing theirhomes, authorities said.

Efforts to fight the blaze from the air weresuspended as night fell and the fire raged un-checked for a third day, testing state resourcesand the conservative government, which is fac-ing the threat of an early election by March.

The constant shift in the winds direction isrekindling the flames, said fire brigade spokes-man Giannis Kapakis. We must all remaincalm through this night.

Authorities said the fire had retreated fromAthens suburbs and was burning mainly forestland, but winds remained strong and the dangerfor a flare-up was constant.

It will be a difficult night because everyone

is exhausted, said Leonidas Kouris, governor ofthe eastern Attica region where a state of emer-gency was declared on Saturday. We will keepfighting for another day, he told Greek TV.

Earlier on Sunday, local authorities usedloudspeakers to urge the 20,000 residents of af-fluent Athens suburb Aghios Stefanos to leave asthe flames approached.

Many people abandoned communitiesaround Athens overnight and some franticallytried to stop the flames reaching houses withgarden hoses and tree branches.

We are facing a great ordeal, said PrimeMinister Costas Karamanlis, who took a helicop-ter tour of the afflicted area. The fire departmentis making a superhuman effort.

The handling of the fire, the biggest sinceGreeces worst wildfires in living memory killed65 people over 10 days in 2007, will be crucialfor his political fate.

His government is clinging to a one-seatmajority and the socialist opposition, ahead inopinion polls, has made clear it will use a March

parliamentary vote, when a new president willbe chosen, to force a snap elec-tion. Nobody has learnedanything from the big

fires of 2007, far-right LAOS party leader GeorgeKaratzaferis told reporters. It is a huge disasterand coordination was not the best.

In eastern Attica the flames seared about12,140ha of forest, farm fields and olive groves.

A significant part of forest has been lost,said WWF Greece conservation directorConstantinos Liarikos. This fire willsurely affect the Athens regionsmicroclimate.

Help from Greeces EuropeanUnion allies has started to arrive.Two Italian aircraft joined firefighting efforts and more wereexpected from France andCyprus. - Reuters

Sacked Iranministernamed as topprosecutorTEHERAN:

Irans judiciary has nameda cleric who was sacked as intelligenceminister by President Mahmoud Ah-madinejad as the Islamic Republics topprosecutor, news agencies reportedyesterday. Ahmadinejad fired IntelligenceMinister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeilast month, a move Iranian media linkedto disagreement over the conservativepresidents choice of a new first vice-president.

Ahmadinejad was re-elected for asecond four-year term in a disputed Junepresidential election, which plunged Iraninto its deepest internal crisis since the1979 Islamic revolution and exposeddeep divisions within its ruling elite.

Some of Ahmadinejads conservativebackers have abandoned him since thevote, even though he enjoys the backingof Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khame-nei, Irans highest authority.

Pro-reform opposition leaders say

the presidential vote was rigged andsee Ahmadinejads next governmentas illegitimate. The authorities rejectsuch charges. The official Irna newsagency said Mohseni-Ejei was pickedas new general prosecutor in a meetingbetween new judiciary chief AyatollahSadeq Larijani and supreme court judges.He replaces Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi.

Ahmadinejad last month outragedhardliners who had endorsed hisre-election by appointing EsfandiarRahim Mashaies as first vice-president.Mashaie has said Iran was friends witheveryone, even the people of arch-foeIsrael. Reuters

AFPPIX