ZAHARO, Greece (AP) — Forest fires sweeping uncontrolled across southern Greece have killed 44 people, some found Saturday in the charred homes of mountain villages reached too late by rescuers hampered by wind-driven flames. New blazes erupted across the country, including a fire on the fringes of Athens.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said arson was suspected in some of the 170 fires that have broken out since Friday morning. He declared a nationwide state of emergency and vowed to pursue the perpetrators.
A 65-year-old man was arrested and charged with arson and multiple counts of homicide in a fire that killed six people in Areopolis, a town in the southern Peloponnese, said fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis.
"So many fires breaking out simultaneously in so many parts of the country cannot be a coincidence," Karamanlis said a nationally televised address. "The state will do everything it can to find those responsible and punish them."
The deadliest fire was in the western Peloponnese region of southern Greece, where at least 38 people were killed in mountain villages near the town Zaharo, the fire department said. A massive fire whipped by strong winds continued to burn out of control.
Firefighters searching through charred houses after daybreak found 10 bodies in the village of Makistos, the department said. They were believed to include a mother and her four children reported missing during the night.
"I feel deep grief for our dead," Karamanlis said. "I feel deep pain for the mother who perished in the flames with her arms round her children. I feel anger — the same that you feel."
Diamandis said there were at least 70 new fires Saturday, and the death toll had risen to 46.
Nine people — including three firefighters — died near Zaharo after a car crashed into a fire truck and led to a pile up as people tried to flee the area, the fire department said.
Hot, dry winds gusting to gale force were expected to continue Saturday before abating in the evening. The winds frequently prevented firefighting planes from taking off, leaving mainly ground forces to fight the flames in the southern Peloponnese, occasionally helped by helicopters.
Desperate villagers and local mayors called television and radio stations to plead for help. The military was sending 500 soldiers and several helicopters to join the firefighting.
A three-day heat wave, in which temperatures have touched 104 Fahrenheit, has left forests and shrubland parched. Fires have raged from the western Ionian islands to Ioannina in northwest Greece, and down to the south.
The skies above Athens turned red with smoke for hours, and ashes fell in the center of the capital as wind drove the flames across the dry landscape.
Authorities evacuated nuns from a convent and closed off a major highway on Mount Ymittos near Athens as flames approached the capital's eastern outskirts, damaging buildings in the Papagou suburb, the fire department said. Firemen assisted by water-dropping aircraft and hundreds of volunteers brought the blaze under partial control. No injuries were reported.
A fire on the island of Evia north of the capital grew through the night, and the authorities declared a state of emergency in the area, said Sofia Moutsou, the mayor of the town of Styra. At least three villages were evacuated, the fire department's Diamandis said.
Greece appealed for help from European Union countries. France, Germany, Spain and non EU-member Norway were sending firefighting aircraft, and Cyprus offered firefighters and trucks.
EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was "saddened by the tragic loss of human lives" and voiced hope that member states would send assistance.
Greece has suffered its worst summer for forest fires this year, with hundreds of blazes burning thousands of hectares of forest and brushland.
With early elections just three weeks away, the devastating fires are certain to become a political issue. The government has come under criticism for its response to previous fires, which killed 10 people.