Tourist dies as wildfire rages through Greek resorts

Firefighters raced today to exploit a lull in winds fanning a wildfire that ravaged holiday resorts in northern Greece, leaving a German tourist dead and dozens of people injured.

Tourists began returning to parts of the Halkidiki peninsula struck by the fire that had forced several thousand people to flee overnight from campsites, hotels and holiday homes.

“The conditions have improved. The firefighters are doing a good job,” said Giorgos Kalatzis, minister for the administrative regions of Macedonia and Thrace.

At least 50 people – mostly Greeks – were hospitalised with breathing problems, and several people were being treated for burns.

Up to 1,000 tourists from Britain alone fled the fire that tore through the resorts of Polychrono, Hanioti, Kriopigi and Pefkochori. Several hundred Germans, some 100 people from Scandinavian countries and about 100 Austrians were also involved in the evacuation. Romanian authorities said about 1,000 of their nationals were in Halkidiki but it was not clear how many were affected by the fire.

Nearly 1,200 people were transported by coastguard vessels across the Gulf of Cassandra and away from the fire, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. Others fled by car.

A 41-year-old German man drowned after experiencing heart problems while trying to board boats rescuing tourists who had been stranded on beaches in the Cassandra area of the peninsula, state coroner Matthaios Tsoukas said.

The blaze destroyed about 12,000 acres of forest, more than 50 homes and dozens of cars, and left charred carcasses of farm animals strewn across blackened hillsides. Authorities declared a state of emergency late yesterday.

Ten water-bombing planes and helicopters assisted more than 300 firefighters and soldiers, amid temperatures reaching 40C (104F).

A three-day heatwave in Greece has left two people dead from heatstroke. A second major fire was threatening homes today in the Laconia area in southern Greece, the fire service said.

Early today, rain storms that damaged crops elsewhere in northern Greece missed the fires in Halkidiki, some 50 miles south of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city.

“The damage in Halkidiki was great and the circumstances very difficult,” Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said. “We express our regret for the death of the German tourist.”

Greece’s main opposition Socialist party accused the government of planning the operation badly after traffic-clogged roads hampered the firefighting effort in the early stages. Several firefighting planes had also been grounded for maintenance before nightfall late yesterday.

Many residents were left to fend for themselves, fighting flames with branches and water from garden hoses, and cutting down pine trees with chain saws, it said.