American Marconi Wireless News - Battle against Greece wildfires 'improving': fire service

Hundreds of firefighters are battling flames on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia as well as a new front that broke out in central Greece as a heatwave has baked large parts of the Mediterranean.

Fires have also flared in Croatia, Italy and Portugal this week, and flames killed 34 in Algeria in extreme heat that has left landscapes tinder dry.

"For now we have no spreading fires, the situation is improving, but we remain on a war footing to contain the ongoing fires," a Greek fire service spokeswoman told AFP.

More than 130 people were evacuated by boat from a town in central Greece on Thursday after fires caused an explosion in an ammunition warehouse.

Local media said the blaze had been contained and that residents of the town of Nea Anchialos had begun returning home, with the force of the explosion shattering windows.

Tens of thousands of residents and tourists at the height of the busy travel season have been evacuated, including the popular holiday destination Rhodes, where officials declared a state of emergency this week.

Two pilots died on Tuesday when their water-bombing plane crashed while battling a blaze in Evia, while another two people died after a fire broke out on Wednesday near the industrial zone of the port city of Volos.

For more than 10 days, Greece has sweltered under what some experts say is the longest heatwave recorded in July for decades.

As well as the four deaths, almost 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) of forest and vegetation have been burned, according to estimates by the Athens Observatory.

Temperatures, which reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) last weekend, have begun to fall.

National weather forecaster EMY predicts they will not climb above 37C on Friday but expects strong winds that could reach 60 kilometres (37 miles) per hour.

M.Fischer--AMWN