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GREECE-FIRES-POLITICS
Two more bodies found at sea after Greek wildfires
ATHENS, July 31, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The bodies of two people thought to have
fled into the sea to escape the wildfires that ravaged coastal towns near
Athens last week have been recovered, port police said Tuesday.
Confirmation that the pair were victims of the fire would bring the
disaster’s death toll to at least 93.
Police have now recovered eight bodies from the sea off a string of
popular coastal communities that were devastated by the fires that broke out
on July 23.
The fires burned with such ferocity that most people fled to the safety of
the sea with just the clothes on their backs. Many then had to wait several
hours in the water for help to arrive.
It was local fishermen, not the coastguard or navy, who first came to
their aid.
A merchant marine official told AFP that the search for further victims
was continuing.
The rightwing and centrist opposition accuse the government of bungling
its response in an area frequently hit by wildfires, and of trying to hide
the scale of the loss of human life as the disaster unfolded.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he assumed “political responsibility”
for the tragedy but rejected accusations of a botched response.
Government officials have insisted that with winds blowing at speeds of up
to 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, there was little time to mount an
effective evacuation.
Tsipras visited the scene on Monday without informing the press, in what
local media said was a bid to avoid protests by residents, while the
opposition conservative New Democracy party said he toured the area in secret
“like a thief”.
“If the prime minister had chosen to be accompanied by cameras, you would
have accused us of staging a PR stunt,” government spokesman Dimitris
Tzanakopoulos responded.
– Athens vigil –
The Athens observatory on Monday said the fire had burned an estimated
1,260 hectares (3,100 acres).
The government has offered emergency assistance of 5,000 euros ($5,800) to
survivors. Relatives of those killed will receive 10,000 euros, while minors
who lost their parents are to receive a monthly stipend of 1,000 euros, he
said.
On Monday evening, several hundred people held a candlelight vigil for the
dead and missing in central Athens’ Syntagma square outside parliament.
“We have to mobilise for the dead. The state is non-existent in Greece,”
said Anastasios Giorgiakoupoulos, one of the participants. “It does not
protect its citizens and that can’t continue any longer.”
BSS/AFP/SSS/1749 hrs