Greece: State of emergency of wildfires, or the burning hell?

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Delirious

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Greek leader suggests political extremists set fires


ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Fires in southern Greece that have razed dozens of villages and killed at least 44 people may have been deliberately set ahead of next month's national elections, the prime minister suggested Saturday.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis declared a nationwide state of emergency Saturday night. He also turned to European Union allies, which have promised help.


Emergency crews pulled charred bodies from homes and local media reported death tolls of up to 50 people.


Scores are hospitalized with severe burns and respiratory problems, state-run television reported. (Much more in article below)


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/25/greece.fires/index.html



Wow...not sure what to say, sounds pretty extreme.
I'm not sure if we have anyone on GTP that lives in this area...

Any contributing thoughts? I'm not sure what to make of this...

 
It certainly struck me as being somewhat suspicious... Greece has notoriously hot summers, and I'm sure that natural wildfires are fairly common there - but even in recent years where temperatures have been atleast as high for atleast as long, the sheer number of wildfires in this relatively small region, is far from 'normal'...
 
It certainly struck me as being somewhat suspicious... Greece has notoriously hot summers, and I'm sure that natural wildfires are fairly common there - but even in recent years where temperatures have been atleast as high for atleast as long, the sheer number of wildfires in this relatively small region, is far from 'normal'...

Ah but did Greece have a dry summer? If the ground and such was drier than normal it wouldn't surprise me, as far as I understand it Southern Europe has been hotter than normal this year, a consequence of our wetter weather.
 
under18carbon I just read at www.wlwt.com (local news for me) that they are doing all efforts to protect the currently ok ancient olympia...where did you get that source?
 
It would be a terrible thing to have the ancient artifacts and whatnot at the museum destroyed because they truly world treasure, but since Greece has been so heavily looted a good deal of the really good stuff is not even in the country. Anything really high end tends to be in London or in the hands of some rich and private collector.

I feel bad for the people though, someone wanted to prove a point so they lit the country on fire. That's a great way to get across your political point. This reminds me of the wildfires we get in America out west that are more often then not set by someone with a message or a seriously pissed off attitude.
 
Question:

Why aren't they asking for help from the US Army Engineers? They fight wildfires in the US quite often, and I'm sure they could help greatly in Greece. Didn't they get that fire in Idaho contained quite quickly?
 
These fires seem so hard to control, they seem massive too. Could they put up a fire barrier around the fire to contain it? Ie cut down trees and put mud barriers up? Because all their efforts so far seem in vain.
 
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