Watchdog slams Greek government's handling of fires

ATHENS (Reuters) - An independent watchdog's preliminaryreport into last summer's deadly wildfires in Greece, whichkilled 65 people, has criticised the government for not doingenough to prevent another such disaster.

"The lesson of last year's tragic experience does not seemto have been fully learned so as to take more effectivemeasures to prevent catastrophes like this in the future," saidthe report, posted on the ombudsman's Web site.

"The main measures for fire protection are not beingproperly implemented."

The investigation into last August's fires, which ragedacross southern Greece for 10 days causing billions of euros indamage, said the public power company's ageing andill-maintained network was responsible for starting manyblazes.

With more than a hundred wildfires across Greece alreadythis year, the inquiry concluded that unlicensed rubbish dumpsused by municipal authorities were also a source of fires.

The enquiry focused on the large island of Evia to thenorth of Athens where five people lost their lives. A report onthe aftermath of fires in the Peloponnese, where most victimsdied, is due in September.

The ombudsman said electrical equipment owned bygovernment-controlled Public Power Corp. (PPC) was oftenageing, faulty and surrounded by dense vegetation.

"The head of the public power company must be accountableto the government and parliament," said Chryssa Hatzi, deputyombudsman for quality of life.

The ombudsman said fire breaks cut into the forest hadbecome overgrown due to lack of funds. The report also quotedfire officials as complaining they did not have the manpower tocontrol the blazes.

Greece's centre-right New Democracy government set up aspecial fund to compensate victims of the fires on the eve ofparliamentary elections in September, which it won by a narrowtwo-seat majority in the 300-member national parliament.

The ombudsman's report said it had received a number ofreports that bureaucracy at the fund was delaying payments. Thefamilies of the five victims in Evia had not received theircompensation: a public sector job for one member of eachfamily.

The report cited the example of Kremasto, where villagershad not received payment for their burned homes and were forcedto live in shipping containers during the winter.

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and TatianaFragou; editing by Robert Hart)