ATHENS: Raging wildfires killed 74 people including small children in Greece, devouring homes and forests as terrified residents fled to the sea to escape the flames, authorities said on Tuesday.
Orange flames engulfed pine forests, turning them to ash and leaving lines of charred cars in the smoke-filled streets of seaside towns near Athens after the fires broke on Monday. Rescuers rushed to evacuate residents and tourists stranded on beaches.
Others were overtaken by the flames in their homes, on foot or in their cars. AFP photographers saw the burnt bodies of humans and dogs. The charred bodies of 26 people, including small children, were discovered in the courtyard of a villa at the seaside resort of Mati, 40-km northeast of the capital, 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. Video footage showed people fleeing by car as the tourist-friendly Attica region declared a state of emergency.
"I saw the fire move down the hill at around 6:00 pm and five or ten minutes later it was in my garden," said 60-year old Athanasia Oktapodi. Her home is surround by dry pine trees. "They caught fire. I ran out like a crazy person, got to the beach and put my head in the water. Then the patrol boats came."
Fire service spokeswoman Stavroula Maliri raised the overall death toll on Tuesday to 74 from an earlier count of 60. She said the toll was not yet final since firefighters were still searching for victims. Winds of more than 100-km in Mati caused a "sudden progression of fire" through the village, said Stavroula Maliri.
"Mati no longer exists," said the mayor of nearby Rafina, Evangelos Bournous. He added that more than a thousand buildings and 300 cars had been damaged. The national government had earlier said at least 172 people were hurt, including 16 children, with 11 adults in a serious condition.
Officials said they were Greece’s deadliest blazes in more than a decade. At least five 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.
Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia to return home. He announced three days of national mourning. Anticipating questions about the high death toll and the emergency planning, Tsipras stressed the "extreme" scale of the fires. Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said "15 fires had started simultaneously on three different fronts in Athens" on Monday.