AP
A man gestures as the fire approaches the houses in Taygetos, southern Peloponese, Greece, yesterday. Massive fires whipped by gale-force winds killed at least four people and led authorities to evacuate parts of a town and several villages.

ATHENS, Greece (AP):

Massive fires fanned by gale-force winds raged out of control across southern Greece yesterday, sweeping into towns and villages and killing at least 15 people in the country's deadliest forest fire toll in decades.

At least nine people, including three firefighters, died near the western Peloponnese town of Zaharo after their vehicles became trapped by the flames, fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said. The town's mayor, Pantazis Chronopoulos, who said he barely escaped the blaze, feared the death toll could rise because of reports of villages encircled by flames.

Diamandis said several civilians and firefighters had been injured and were taken to local hospitals, but he could not give an exact number.

Hospitals on alert

Charred bodies lay by the side of a road near Zaharo, local reports said, nd ambulances struggled to reach the area. Senior health ministry official Panagiotis Efstathiou said hospitals in the region had been put on alert and 11 additional ambulances were being sent from the western city of Patras.

One woman in the village of Rodina, near Zaharo, told private Antenna television by telephone that about 20 people, including children, were trapped in the village.

"We can see the fire in front of us. It's at our feet," said the woman, who did not give her name. "We're choking on the smoke."

Television footage showed flames towering above homes, turning the night sky orange. At least five villages in the area were evacuated, the fire department said.

To the east, five people were killed trying to flee the flames near a hotel on the outskirts of the town of Areopolis including two whose charred bodies were found locked in an embrace. None has been identified.

A firefighter also died of a heart attack while battling the fire in the area, Diamandis said.

All the hotels in Areopolis and part of the town were evacuated, as well as several villages in the area.