Firefighters battle last remaining blaze

FIREFIGHTERS battled the country’s last big blaze in southern Greece yesterday after managing to bring under control hundreds of others that for one week ravaged large parts of the country and killed at least 64 people.

The Finance Ministry put the preliminary cost of the damage at a minimum of about 0.6% of gross domestic product, or £800 million (€1.2 billion).

There were fears that a new heat wave accompanied by strong winds expected over the weekend could feed smaller fires or rekindle those that smouldered around Greece.

In the early afternoon, a fresh breeze fuelled Greece’s one major remaining fire as it swept through the village of Kato Kotyli on the southern Peloponnese peninsula. Residents and firefighters managed, however, to prevent it from destroying any of the tiny hamlet’s 30 or so homes.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who faces a race for re-election in less than three weeks, promised to rebuild all homes destroyed by the fires with money from a newly established disaster relief fund that will include both state and private contributions.

But he failed to say how much that would cost, and there are no official figures yet on the number of destroyed homes. Initial estimates, mostly from the public works ministry, indicate at least 1,500 homes were destroyed, but there are concerns the number could double. The number of people left homeless was at least 4,000, but that number also could double.

“It is our duty to restore what has been lost, and it is our duty to future generations to restore the environment that has been lost,” Karamanlis said. “The state will rebuild lost homes with the contributions from this fund.”

The European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hubner, was expected to tour the burnt regions today to asses how much aid Greece needed.

Arson has been widely blamed for wildfire activity. Six people have been charged with deliberately setting fires.The fires are dominating political debate before the elections. Criticism that the government failed to respond quickly enough — and its suggestions the fires resulted from an organised attack — could hurt Karamanlis.