Day 5 wild fires in Greece

Day 5 in the villages around the epicentre of the wild fires near Ancient Olympia and whilst fires are still breaking out and firemen continue to do battle with unforgiving elements the cost to the lives of villagers throughout the region is now beginning to be counted. The worst affected are the elderly most of whom get by on a paltry 200 euros a month from their pensions. Many have been burned out of their homes and are now either sleeping in the charred remains of their tiny houses or in their open yards. Most of their livestock have been burned and for those that survived they have nothing to feed them with. The landscape is barren. Trees that stood over 30 metres now reduced to blackened stumps. Their branches are now ashes that waft in the atmosphere and swirl in eddies of wind. The disaster both to the people and to the environment is huge. The scale cannot be described in words or pictures. From one horizon to the other from mountain to mountain and valley to valley the only view that greets the eye is of a black and charred waste land. As one old man told me.. "All our beautiful trees are gone and now in my old age I havent even got a shady tree to sit under and rest"

Ancient Olympia - Wild Fires

On the fourth day of wild fires raging throughout Greece the village of Ploutohori near the site of Ancient Olympia, was the latest to be threatened by flames from all sides being fanned by strong and ever changing winds.
Animals unable to be saved by their owners were abandoned in their pens or left chained up. Their decaying charred remains now are left to fester until officials can come and take stock so that damages can be paid to their owners. Those animals which by some miracle escaped now huddle together in a single part of a blackened field with no grass to eat or water to drink.

Greece - Forest Fires

The worst forest fire season on record in Greece climaxed over the last two days with over 100 fires raging throughout the country resulting in over 50 deaths (and rising…) and thousands of acres worth of forest lost.

Today a fire raged on Hymettos Mountain. Pine forest was razed, houses and blocks of flats were burned and a pall of smoke hung over the city blotting out the sun and turning the landscape orange. The smell of burned pine is in the air and ash falls from the sky like snow. The feeling is one of siege.. it feels as though the city and the country are at war.

Clearly the result of not only one of the hottest ever summers with temperatures hitting 47 C but in most part the result of arsonists. Conspiracy theories are also raging from it being the work of foreigners unhappy with Greece for whatever reason, to it being the work of leftist extremists set on over-throwing the government…

Whatever the reasons, the people of Greece could not be more depressed with the situation.. I’ve spoken to many who break into tears at the thought of the loss both human and environmental. A woman and her four children were burned alive in their car trying to escape flames fanned by high winds, Athens last oasis of greenery in Parnitha was almost completely burned with the loss of rare flora and fauna.

The feeling of helplessness, sadness and anger is tangible.