Greek firefighters battled to contain fires on at least seven major fronts Monday as Russian fire-fighting planes arrived, according to dpa. Firemen continued battling more than 80 fires - the largest in the north-western Macedonian areas of Ioannina, Kozani, Florina, Pieria and Thesprotia - which have not shown signs of abating owing to strong winds. Other fires were reported on the Ionion island of Zakynthos and the southern island of Crete. Wildfires in Skra, the Kilkis prefecture and in Dorkada near the northern port city of Thessaloniki have been extinguished but firefighting forces remain in the area. A Russian fire-fighting BE-200 amphibian plane, with a water capacity of 12 tons, was being used after its arrival Sunday following an appeal by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Two Mi-8 helicopters, each with a water capacity of seven tons, were also expected to arrive Monday. Since the beginning of June hundreds of fires have destroyed over 60,000 hectares of forest and taken the lives of five firefighters. Tinder-dry conditions and record-high temperatures have caused more than 2,000 forest fires since the beginning of June. Forest rangers have been placed on 24-hour patrol until summer's end. Six consecutive days of scorching temperatures that reached 45 degrees Celsius last week contributed to the deaths of two people and sent hundreds of others to hospital.
