Mercury Hits 100F As Two Major Fires Rage In Greece - AFP

[hatrack]

Hundreds of Greek firefighters were on Tuesday battling to tackle two major blazes that have already claimed the life of one German tourist and destroyed buildings and forests.

Both fires broke out on Monday, one in the south of the country and one on the northern Greek peninsula of Halkidiki. Some 3,500 hectares (8,500 acres) of pine forest and around 15 buildings have been destroyed in Halkidiki, but the situation has improved since Monday, authorities said.

Dozens of shops and cars were damaged overnight Monday and a tourist drowned on Cassandra beach as he tried to board a dinghy to escape the fire, a local official, Argyris Lafazanis, told the semi-state Athens News Agency.

The fire department said 220 firefighters, two army batallions and 70 volunteers were battling the blaze, which no longer threatened residential areas.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060822184256.zyoui61w.html

[mike_c]

1. approx. 50,000 acres burning in a dozen major fires in NorCal...

...just over the mountain in the Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath National Forests.

http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html


Fire beside Rt. 96 near Somes Bar and the confluence of the Klamath and Salmon Rivers &w=1200&h=1200