Greece: Firefighters bring all fires under control

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
All major blazes in Greece were under control Friday, and firefighters were working to extinguish smaller fires in the southern part of the country. One week after hundreds of wildfires broke out across Greece, killing 64 people and costing the country at least US$1.6 billion, the fire department said the last major fire near the town of Kato Kotyli, in the southern Peloponnese peninsula, "no longer has an active front and is receding." But it warned in an announcement that, just because "we are in a phase where fires are receding, that does not mean that the danger has been eliminated." Initial government estimates indicate at least 1,500 homes were gutted in the southern Peloponnese peninsula and on the island of Evia, just north of Athens. But there are concerns that figure could double. At least 4,000 people were left homeless, but that number also could double.