International Orthodox Christian News

PEABODY -- Local residents with ties to Greece are watching with growing concern as out-of-control brush fires ravage the countryside and threaten the cities.

The Associated Press has set the death toll at nearly 70, with whole villages destroyed and the full extent of the death and destruction yet to be determined. North Shore residents, some with family in the region, are glued to Greek television broadcasts and making calls to relatives, said the Rev. Chris Foustoukos of St. Vasilios Greek Orthodox Church.

Mayor Michael Bonfanti will hold a press conference tomorrow formally announcing efforts to collect donations for Peabody's Greek sister city of Messinia.

"It will all be done through the Greek community," he said.

The Greek government has already declared an emergency in Messinia and the surrounding area.

The need is there and growing, Foustoukos said.

"We've been getting calls from the IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities)," he said. "We're getting calls from the Greek government. It's devastating. Greek television is asking for tents, blankets and dry goods."

Foustoukos has family members in the Arcadia area. He hasn't heard from them since this latest round of fires began.

Just back from a Greek vacation, Parish Council President Speros Venios described a scene of utter devastation, much of it in the Peloponnesus peninsula.

"My grandparents are still there within 10 miles of the fire," he said.

His return flight to Athens was diverted as an entire mountain below the flight path became engulfed in flame.

Ashes fell on the beaches, Venios said.

"Even when we were in Athens, there were fires burning nearby," he said. As he ate in city restaurants, he watched ash swirling onto the streets. For a while, fire came to the edge of the ruins and museum at Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games.

Deaths include a mother found sheltering her children.

Firefighters from throughout the European Union are working to halt the blazes, which have erupted all over the country but particularly in the south.

Venios is helping to organize the relief effort here. A shipping company in Revere, Mike's Shipping Line, has agreed to send the first container of goods for free. Collecting items like tents, sheets, blankets, canned goods -- even clothes -- decreases concerns about misusing people's donations, he said. On the other hand, monetary donations are also being accepted.

George Markos operates Dotty and Ray's restaurant in Salem. A native of Sparta, his wife, Pauline, is already there and in regular contact. Ash falls continuously, "like snow," he said. But after the flames came within 10 miles of the famed city, a change in the wind saved it.

"She says it came pretty close," Markos said.

Not everyone was so lucky.

"One hundred villages, they burn down," Markos said. "(Villagers) go back, they have no property. They have no land. All the trees are gone. ... All the fruit trees and olive trees." They won't recover quickly, he said, and city dwellers are bracing for an influx of new, permanent residents.

Complicating the problem -- some of the airborne firefighters have been spraying the blaze with salt water scooped from the sea, spoiling the land for future agriculture.

"Some of the people," Markos said, "World War II veterans, they say 'We didn't face such difficulties even back then.'" Greek buildings are made of stone, he noted, so local fire departments see little action and are not well-equipped to face this kind of emergency.

The catastrophe has sparked bitter speculation about the cause of the fires, which come in the midst of an extraordinarily hot, bone-dry summer. Destructive brush fires broke out in July, as well. But this latest wave comes just prior to a national election and some charge that they have been set deliberately to weaken the government.

Others mutter about terrorism. Or even arson for profit, as landowners can be forbidden from building on forested land.

Peabody pharmacist Steve Kalivas has family in Kalamata, a town that was able to outsmart the fire.

"It seems they built a berm around some villages." The outbreaks have been "a little suspicious," he said.

People who want to contribute to the relief effort at

St. Vasilios Greek Orthodox Church should call the church at 978-531-0777 or Joanne Venios at 978-902-2863.