Ancient Olympia Fire

Hillside Fire

From the news pipelines, The birthplace of the Olympic games has been struggling with a very huge forest fire threatening to damage historical places & Greek neighborhoods. The government of Greece has already declared a state of emergency. Initial findings declare that there are 56 people dead because of the forest fire & 5 person reported missing.

As the pictures attached are showing, the local Greeks are having a hard time fighting the fire threatening their homes. They seem helpless & unprepared for this disaster that they are fighting the flames with tree branches, garden hoses and other common household items. The others already affected were already evacuated numbering to over a thousand. At least 500 homes were damaged even as EU firefighters have already joined in to help.

The manager of the Greek Olympic Committee ha confirmed that the fire is heading the musuems way so they have taken measures to evacuating valuables & leave the premises.
Some of the residents are complaining that firefighting efforts are concentrated on protecting the wildfire from reaching the historic site even as the sites are protected by fire prevention systems. This fire is reported the worst in Greek history.

Here are the permalink for the Olympis Fire incident:

Greek fires kill 51, threaten ancient Olympia ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (Reuters) - Firefighters battled to protect Ancient Olympia in Greece on Sunday as forest fires that have killed 51 people raged unabated for a third day. Fire brigades evacuated villages near Olympia, site of the first Olympic Games, as flames pushed up to the outskirts of the historic site on Greece's southern Peloponnese peninsula.


2008 Olympics