Officials say 46 people have died in the past two days and many others are thought to be trapped, as scores of blazes swept the Peloponnese region.
The BBC's Malcolm Brabant, in Pyrgos, says radio stations are being inundated with calls from people in remote mountain villages saying they are surrounded by fire.
Some 170 fires have raged across the country. Some of the worst were concentrated along an 80km (50 mile) stretch on the west coast of the Peloponnese to Mani in the very south of the peninsula.
Friday and Saturday have been the deadliest days of a terrible summer spent battling forest fires, transforming what had previously been seen as predominantly an ecological disaster into a human one, our correspondent says.
There has been widespread public anger at the government's response, which many have criticised as inadequate and slow.
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk 
