Two major Greek blazes extinguished

Greece: Three major fires that ravaged southern Greece for 10 days have been put out or brought under control, the fire service…

Greece:Three major fires that ravaged southern Greece for 10 days have been put out or brought under control, the fire service there said yesterday.

Fire destroyed an estimated 190,000 hectares (469,000 acres) of mostly forest and farmland, prompting a massive relief effort, along with criticism of Greece's conservative government for failing to evacuate villages safely before they were burned.

Also today, funeral services were held for a mother and her four children who were killed outside the southern village of Artemida while trying to flee the fires.

Four other people also died when a convoy of cars was trapped in flames - this was the deadliest single incident during the fires.

READ MORE

The death toll rose to 65 yesterday when a man burned in a fire on the island of Evia died in a hospital.

Aestimated 4,000 people lost their homes.

The fire service said major blazes outside the southern Peloponnese towns of Megalopoli and Karytaina were extinguished, while nine firefighting planes and two helicopters had helped contain a fire on Mount Parnon, further south.

- (AP)