Greek fires under control, govt under attack

ATHENS (Reuters) - Wildfires that tore through suburbs of Athens and forced thousands of people to flee their homes were contained on Tuesday as the government's handling of the disaster became an election issue.

Likely to face voters early next year, the conservative government said very strong winds had made it difficult to fight fires in east Attica where swathes of forest and more than 150 homes were destroyed.

"If what we experienced in Attica is the best this government can do, then it is obvious we must urgently replace it," the liberal daily Ethnos said in its main editorial.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is clinging to a one-seat majority and the socialist opposition, which is ahead in opinion polls, has made clear it will force a snap poll in March when parliament votes for a new president.

"Fatal mistakes and shortcomings," read the front page headline of the conservative Kathimerini daily. It said authorities committed the same errors as in 2007 when the worst Greek blazes in living memory killed 65 people, mainly in the Peloponnese peninsula.

The current fire broke out late on Friday in the village of Grammatiko, about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Athens, and spread quickly through the mountains of east Attica.

Greek, Italian and French water-drop planes, hundreds of fire-fighters and soldiers battled the flames, which raged for three days, devouring about 75,000 acres of forest, farming land and olive groves.

Thousands fled after a state of emergency was declared in the area but many stayed behind to fight the flames with garden hoses and tree branches.

"There are no fire fronts in east Attica but forces remain there in case of flare-ups," a fire brigade spokesman said.

A public prosecutor has ordered an inquiry into whether arsonists started the blazes in an area where fires have in the past been set by land developers.

Political parties and the press said the lack of enforcement of strict zoning laws encouraged arson because illegal villas have been sprouting in the middle of burned forests for decades.

A congested capital of nearly 5 million people, Athens has sprawled across the Attica region in an anarchic system that legalizes buildings after they are illegally constructed.