Fires in Greece, Turkey send people fleeing

DROSOPIGI, Greece -- Thousands of people fled fires burning out of control in Greece and Turkey on Friday, including a blaze just north of the Greek capital of Athens that claimed one life, as a protracted heat wave left forests tinder-dry and flames threatened populated areas and electricity installations.

Turkey's wildfires, described as the worst in decades, have swept through swaths of the southern coast for the past 10 days, killing eight people.

In Greece, firefighters were battling 56 wildfires, Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said. Evacuation orders were issued for dozens of villages on the mainland and the nearby island of Evia, as well as outlying settlements on the fringes of Athens where the fire burned forests and houses, heading for Lake Marathon, the capital's main water reservoir.

Shifting winds Friday afternoon caused the blazes outside Athens and Evia to repeatedly change direction, in some cases returning to threaten areas that had narrowly escaped destruction earlier this week.

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"We continue our effort hour by hour to tackle the multiple fires we face today," Hardalias said. "Conditions are exceptionally dangerous."

Athens' main trauma hospital said a 38-year-old man died after a head injury from a falling utility pole in an area north of Athens affected by the fire.

On Evia, the coast guard mounted a major operation overnight Thursday and into Friday to evacuate hundreds of residents and vacationers by sea, using patrol vessels, fishing boats and other private vessels. A new evacuation order by sea was issued late Friday for the village of Limni, initially spared by the blaze, where residents were urged to head for the harbor to escape on a ferry boat.

"We're talking about the apocalypse, I don't know how to describe it," Sotiris Danikas, head of the coast guard in the town of Aidipsos on Evia, told state broadcaster ERT, describing the earlier sea evacuation.

The coast guard said 668 people had been taken off beaches in northeast Evia by early Friday afternoon after flames cut off all other means of escape.

A coast guard vessel rescued another 10 people trapped on a beach by another fire near the town of Gythio in the southern Peloponnese region.

Greek and European officials have blamed climate change for the multiple fires burning through southern Europe, from southern Italy to the Balkans, Greece and Turkey.

In Italy, firefighters battling a wildfire in the province of Reggio Calabria found the bodies of a man and a woman in an olive grove. LaPresse news agency said they died of smoke inhalation.

Massive fires have been burning across Siberia in Russia's north for weeks, while hot, bone-dry, gusty weather has also fueled devastating wildfires in California.

Information for this article was contributed by Mehmet Guzel and Frances D'Emilio of The Associated Press.