ZAHARO, Greece — Fires pushed by gale-force winds tore through more parched forests, swallowed villages and scorched the edges of Athens on Saturday with ashes raining onto the Acropolis. The death toll rose to at least 49 as the government declared a nationwide state of emergency.
Soldiers and military helicopters reinforced firefighting forces that were stretched to the limit by Greece's worst summer of wildfires in decades. In the most ravaged area — a string of mountain villages in southern Greece — rescue crews picked through a grim aftermath that spoke of last-minute desperation as the fires closed in.
Dozens of charred bodies were found across fields, homes, along roads and in cars, including the remains of a mother hugging her four children.
And new fronts emerged. Dozens of fresh fires broke out across the country — including some blamed on arson — with the worse infernos concentrated in the mountains of southern Greece.
By sea and by land, authorities evacuated hundreds of people trapped by the flames.
An extra 500 soldiers were to join firefighters on Sunday, the fire department said. At least 12 countries also pledged reinforcements, including firefighting aircraft and crews.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said arson was suspected in some of the blazes.
"So many fires breaking out simultaneously in so many parts of the country cannot be a coincidence," Karamanlis said in a nationally televised address. "The state will do everything it can to find those responsible and punish them."
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. Separately, two youths were arrested on suspicion of arson in the northern Greek city of Kavala, he said. Their parents were also to face charges, he said.
Hospitals across Greece were on alert, and the Health Ministry sent tents for 1,500 people to the south for those made homeless.
The worst affected region was around the town of Zaharo, south of Ancient Olympia in the western Peloponnese. Thick smoke — that blocked out the intense summer sun — could be seen from more than 60 miles away.
The blaze broke out on Friday afternoon and quickly engulfed villages, trapping dozens of people during the night. Scores of people were treated in local hospitals for burns and breathing problems.
Panagiotis Efstathiou, a senior Health Ministry official, said 49 bodies were taken to hospitals. The fire department confirmed only 47 deaths. Still, there were fears the death toll could increase as rescue crews searched recently burned areas.
"We still have missing (people) who haven't been found. We have about 10 missing," Zaharo Mayor Pantazis Chronopoulos said, adding that soldiers had begun checking burned houses for more victims.
"I feel deep grief for our dead," Karamanlis said in his address.
"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."
Desperate residents called television and radio stations to appeal for help, saying they were surrounded by flames. The fire department said 26 villages had been evacuated.
To the north of Athens on the island of Evia, a massive fire raged out of control, burning across hillsides and through villages. Winds blowing with gale-force gusts blew thick smoke southwards into Athens, turning the sky over the capital red and raining ashes down into the center of the city. Police and coast guards used coast guard patrol boats to evacuate 300 people from the island's town of Aliveri and 40 from the nearby town of Styra.
About 300 tourists, mainly from France, were evacuated from local hotels, said Greek-French architect Xavier Pathoulas.
"If the wind doesn't turn tonight, we will burn," he said.
Holiday-makers in Styra said about 500 people were preparing to spend a second night on a beach, with flames surrounding the nearby hills and burning through several villages.
Diamandis said 70 new fires had broken out during Saturday, while dozens still burned from the day before. Volunteers with garden hoses and buckets joined firefighters in the battle to save lives and homes.
Hot, dry seasonal winds drove the flames across a landscape parched by successive heat waves. Reduced winds and a slight dip in temperatures were forecast for Sunday.
The fires were so severe that authorities said they could not yet provide an estimate of how much damage they had caused, nor what expanse of land had been burned.
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. Firefighters assisted by water-dropping aircraft and hundreds of volunteers brought the blaze under partial control.
Contributing: Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens