Greece braced for more fire chaos（在线收听） |
| Greek firefighters are facing another day battling wildfires still threatening areas north of Athens. Thousands of residents of the capital's northern suburbs were forced to leave their homes as dozens of houses and large areas of forest were burnt. But a Greek government spokesman told the BBC things were now looking much better in the Athens area and the immediate danger had passed. At dawn, aircraft resumed water-dropping on the fires. The BBC's Dominic Hughes in Athens says large areas are deserted except for fire crews, army and police, but some residents have refused to leave. See map of affected regionTo the north, the town of Marathon, with important archaeological （考古）sites, was encircled by fires but appears to have been spared. More than 90 fires are thought to have started since Saturday and more than 37,000 acres of land have been burnt. While no casualties have been reported, a regional Athens governor, Yiannis Sgouros, has called the fires an "ecological disaster". 'Begging for help' AT THE SCENEDominic Hughes, BBC News, AthensFirefighters will be relieved to see the wind has dropped a little overnight. Gale force winds had driven more than 80 fires into some of Athens' suburbs at a tremendous speed. Some residents have refused to leave, choosing to fight the fires with whatever they can lay their hands on. But while these fires have not proved as deadly as those two years ago which claimed more than 70 lives, officials are warning that many blazes（大火） are still not under control. Almost all of the approximately 10,000 inhabitants of Agios Stefanos, 23km (14 miles) north-east of Athens, fled on Sunday by vehicle or on foot. But others refused to leave, carrying out a desperate defence of their homes with garden hoses, buckets, and shovels, the BBC's Dominic Hughes reports from Athens. Overnight, the town of Marathon found itself threatened with flames reported to have raced down a hill, with ancient monuments and museums in danger, but this threat now appears to have passed. One Athens resident told the BBC the fires were having a huge impact on the city. "You can smell it, no matter how far away you drive. There's a thick cloud of smoke all over Athens," said Katerina Drakopoulos. "The streets are packed. People have panicked（惊慌失措）, just trying to save their houses. It's been ridiculously windy."The mayor of Marathon, Spyros Zagaris, said he had been "begging the government to send over planes and helicopters" to no avail. But government spokesman Panos Livadas told the BBC things had improved since the extraordinarily difficult conditions of the first 24 hours of the fires, and praised the firefighting effort. "Things are looking much better this morning," he said. "The work [of the] firemen and firewomen has ... been extraordinary... - very efficient, they have done everything humanly possible and I think it's indicative of the efficiency of their work the fact that no human loss of life was there.""Immediate dangers are over," he added. 'Difficult fight' Mayor Zagaris was among several local leaders who accused the government of having no plan to fight the fire. But Finance Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou dismissed the claims. "This is not the time for criticism under these tragic conditions," he was quoted as saying by AP news agency. "We are fighting a difficult fight."The winds died down during the night, allowing firefighters some respite, and ground crews worked to create fire protection zones after planes and helicopters stopped flying as darkness fell. Brabant flees home as fires rageFighting the flamesIn pictures: Greek wildfiresGreek wildfires: Your picturesAt first light on Monday, water-dropping aircraft resumed operations, and are due to be assisted by aircraft from France, Italy and Cyprus. Strong winds are expected to resume by midday. Nearly 2,000 firefighters and soldiers are engaging the blaze on the ground, together with hundreds of volunteers. Multiple fires have been burning across an area some 50km wide, fanned by strong and unpredictable winds. Dozens of homes were burnt down and a state of emergency was declared in the Athens area, which was shrouded in smoke. The fires began late on Friday in Grammatiko, near Marathon. They spread rapidly through forests, and by Sunday morning, were closing in on the Athens suburbs of Drafi, Pikermi and Pallini. The fires are the worst since those in 2007 which killed about 70 people. In July, dozens of fires burnt through thousands of hectares of land in other parts of Greece, Spain, France and Italy. According to the conservation group Greenpeace, heat waves and drier conditions are leading to larger and more uncontrollable forest fires across the whole Mediterranean region.（本文由在线英语听力室） |
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