Firefighters battled to protect Ancient Olympia in Greece today as forest fires that have killed 51 people raged unabated for a third day.
Fire brigades evacuated villages near Olympia, site of the first Olympic Games, as flames pushed up to the outskirts of the historic site on Greece's southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The fires were nearing the site's museum, housing a number of famous classical sculptures such as Hermes by Praxiteles and other finds from collapsed pagan temples and sport facilities.
EU firefighters and planes joined the battle after Greece declared a state of emergency on Saturday. Towering walls of flame have cut a swathe of destruction through the Peloponnese and swept across other regions.
The fires have bathed Athens in white ash, forced thousands to flee their villages and burned about 500 homes and thousands of acres of forest and farmland.
Fire brigade spokesman Nikos Diamandis said the "goal is to stop the fire from going through the Ancient Olympia site" but he added: "Despite our efforts, there has been no progress."
Three planes and two helicopters bombarded the blaze, which had reached the villages of Pelopio and Platanos near Olympia. About 90 firefighters and soldiers were deployed in the area.
Haralambos Giannaras, manager of the Greek Olympic Committee facilities, said staff were vacating the site and said the fire has "crossed the hill and is heading towards the museum."
Officials said a well organised fire protection system was installed at the site for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Residents of nearby villages complained that all rescue efforts were directed at the ancient site while their homes burned.
"The church bells are ringing. It's hell here," a resident from Oinoi village north of Olympia said by phone on television. "In the name of God, where are the firefighters? Where is the help?"
Ancient Olympia boasts ruins of the stadium and pagan temples that hosted the Olympics for centuries from 776 BC and is the site of an Olympic flame ceremony every two years.
Fire brigades, stretched to their limit by scores of blazes, threw reinforcements from Greece's European Union partners into action to fight blazes stretching over 160 km (100 miles) across the Peloponnese, the island of Evia and near Athens.
Two French and one Italian fire-fighting plane dropped water on burning hillsides south of the capital and 60 firefighters from Cyprus joined the fray. More help was expected on Sunday and Monday from at least 11 countries.
From the Peloponnese to Evia, northeast of Athens, residents used garden hoses and buckets in futile efforts to save homes.
Athens was covered in white ash from fires that advanced to its outskirts on Saturday, with drifting cinders setting at least one apartment ablaze.
Floating ash swirled around the Parthenon and other temples on the Acropolis overlooking the capital and the smell of smoke permeated the city.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who recently called early elections for next month, declared a state of emergency yesterday.
Dozens of charred bodies were found yesterday across fields, homes, along roads and in cars, including the remains of a mother hugging her four children.
A 65-year-old man was arrested and charged with arson and multiple counts of murder in a fire that killed six people in Areopolis, a town in the southern Peloponnese.
Separately, two youths were arrested on suspicion of arson in the northern city of Kavala, he said. Their parents will also face charges.
Hospitals across Greece were on alert, and the health ministry sent tents for 1,500 people to the south to house those made homeless.
PA