Fire update

Today we have seen very little of the sun, it's been obscured by the smoke from the fires. The wind has changed blowing smoke towards us, everything getting covered now with black soot. Because the smoke has made visibility something like a dense fog it's impossible to see where it's coming from or how close it is.

TV reports tonight have been quite extensive, most channels giving extra news time to show the fires and discuss the fire fighting. Even the Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis was shown visiting the area and taking an interest in the work. Within 70 km of us they showed 9 separate main fires, one to the south of us at Areopoli, three to the north, within 30km of us in the area between us, Kalamata and Sparta. The rest are either further north or on the other finger near Finikounda and Pylos. The smoke we first saw was probably further away than we first thought.

Many promises were made on the TV reports about extra resources being brought in to help in the area, so we hope tomorrow things will improve