Clearer skies

This morning the skies are much clearer, still a grey blanket to the north over Kalamata, but it looks as though the horror of the past few days may be nearing its end. There have been many arrests made so hopefully the number of people engaged in starting these fires is now reduced and with the winds being a little calmer the fire fighters may be able to bring it all under control.

We have seen the phrase "attention deficit" used in the press here, written by Greeks about Greeks. Having dealt with the problem the Greeks normally forget about it within days and all ideas about being prepared for a similar event are totally lost. We can only hope that this time some of the horror will stick in enough minds to ensure a safer future.

Fire update

Since yesterday afternoon the problems with electricity supply seem to have subsided. Even my UPS was beginning to struggle as it was not getting chance to recharge between the power cuts.

Yesterday afternoon and evening Greek TV was distressing to watch. They were taking call after call from residents of the villages where the fires had reached. People were telling the presenters that the fire was outside their house, they had no water, often no power, they were trapped and begged for someone to come to help them. Sometimes TV cameras were in villages being consumed by the flames. Residents were sobbing as they watched houses burn and start to collapse, often being dragged back by friends and relatives. One old man was sitting on a bench and told the reporter, “This plastic shopping bag now contains everything I own”. Very sad, but with the death toll still climbing, he’s luckier than some.

We can only hope that the governments offer of big rewards to help catch the arsonists who set some of these fires will bring results, already a few arrests have been made.

So far the fires nearest to us do not seem to have made any significant progress in our direction. We had a heavy covering of smoke yesterday morning that cleared in the afternoon. The wind changed again around 6pm and the sun disappeared behind the smoke that is moving at high altitudes. Again this morning we have reasonably clear skies, but still able to see the blanket of smoke to the north in the Kalamata area.

For the last few days, today, Monday was getting a forecast of possible thunder showers for this area on the internet weather forecasts. Of course yesterday this changed to yet another day of sun with temperatures in the 30’s. The long range forecast is for this to be the same all of the coming week, but for next Sunday and Monday the possibility of scattered thunder storms has reappeared.

Fire update

Back online at last, yesterday was one power cut after another. Late afternoon we had power for a couple of hours, but even then every few minutes was a "brown out". When I tried the internet during that time my ADSL was working but I couldn't connect to the ISP's server. We heard that Athens also had a couple of big fires, so possibly they were effecting the data centre in some way, although I can't find information about that.

The fire to the south of us is quite extensive, but a previous fire last month has made a fire break that should prevent it moving towards us. The fires to the north are much further away than we first thought. At the moment they don't seem to be a big threat, but you can never be sure.

Since a power cut that lasted about an hour last night at 9pm the power supply seems to be much more stable.

We are at the same time suffering a really hot spell. The temperature while I’m writing this at 6am is 86 degrees. Daytime temperatures have been in the mid to high 90’s, possible higher as I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the thermometers that we have.

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

More fires

Yet again we have a fire in this area. We first noticed the smoke yesterday morning to the north of us. It appears to be coming from somewhere between Tseria and Saidona, as it's over the hillsides it's difficult to work out exactly where it is, but probably about 5 miles away from us.

The first picture shows the smoke where it is rising over the hillside, the second taken down on the beach at about 7pm.

This morning the wind has changed, blowing towards us from the fire so we have the smell of the fire and everywhere is getting covered in a light grey ash.

We hope that the fire fighting helicopters and planes are brought in today!

Rituals

Yesterday, just about sunset, in and secluded courtyard outside of an old church a group of about 60 people gathered together. They brought with them tables and what looked like a metal urn on a tripod together with buckets of water.

A couple handed their baby girl over to another couple, who, with the parents help, stripped her, rubbed oil all over her body, then handed her to an old man who put her in urn filled with water and proceeded to wash her.....

If it wasn't a baptism, then we would all have been in jail...

Long hot summer

OK, it was my fault for saying it, it was late starting, but now we have summer.

We had a short visit to the UK at the end of June for a wedding, and as we left the summer kicked in. Temperatures at Kalamata airport at the weekend after we left were reported to be in the high 40's. Since then we've hardly seen a cloud, every day has been at least 33 degrees, with a few just topping 40.

The downside of the sun is of course that everything in the area, and the whole of Greece, has become tinder dry. Since July we have seen 4 fires in our area, one of which burnt for just over a week before it was finally put out. That fire came closest to us, we were able to watch the flames on the mountainsides for two nights. Fire fighting planes and helicopters pass by on a regular basis, seeing the planes scooping water from the sea is spectacular even if it is worrying. Since the beginning of the year, Greece has had over 3,000 fires reported according to one newspaper report. It’s not only Greece that’s having the problem, we see reports from other Mediterranean countries experiencing the same problems. Unfortunately the resources are being stretched, at least one plane has crashed killing the crew.