Greek Fires - Those poor, poor people

[sparkler]

[sad

and how very frightening for them all.

Greek Fires

"The fire department said several children were among the dead, including a mother found still clutching her children."

Extra hugs and kisses for my two daughters tonight.

I live right next to heathland in Poole. A couple of years ago there was a massive fire in which people in my neighbourhood were evacuated. We could see flames from our living room window. I know it is only very small compared to what the Greeks are going through right now but ours was frightening enough. I just can't begin to imagine how scary it must be for them right now.

often fires are started by arsonists - hope they catch these people.

i heard on the news some personal stories. it's the most horrific thing.

I'm worrying quite a bit tbh. DCs go to a Greek Orthodox school, and although most people there are Cypriot greek, I have a fair few friends who are actually Greek and decamp over there during the summer holidays to stay with friends and relatives. Lots of the teachers do too I'm going to be very relieved to see everyone safe and well on the first day of term.

Serenity. I'm hoping all the Mners with Greek connections can be assured their families are OK too - thinking of pph, Melpomene and PollyLogos for instance.

Does anyone have any ideas as to find out exactly which mountain villages are burning/in danger of burning?

The press keeps focusing on the arson angle; or they just mention Zaharo and Olympia.

But there are loads of little villages in Laconia, the part of the Peloponnese that's been most affected. I tried the Greek embassy websites, but nothing. . .I tried googling too. . .

Any suggestions?

must be terrifying, those poor people(sad)

have had a quick look and can't find much atm xanthipi do you know the area?

thanks southeast astra--

I'm particularly interested to know about xerokambi, ardna (sp?), kremasti and gorani--and all those mountain (& heavily wooded) villages around Sparta, which is where my relatives come from. I can't ring them because I don't speak Greek, and they don't speak English, and I can't find the phone numbers of their children in Athens, who do speak English. Anyway, would just put my mind at ease, even to have an inkling if those regions are affected.

There was a satellite photo on BBC News 24 showing the fires. I'm pretty sure that the bulk of the fires were further north than Sparta (from what I can remember) but obviously there are ones scattered all over the place. I'm trying to find it, but there's so much stuff on the web it's hard to track down. I'll keep looking though.

Xanthipi I will look into the names of those villages and let you know what is happenning. (I'm in Greece)

Me and my family are oK as we are back in Athens, the fires though are absolutely terrible, as I speak the sky over Athens is completely 'clouded'over with the smoke from Evia, loads of ash on balcony etc. My oldest son is coming home today from our village in a completely different part of greece, but I have been worrying about what would happen if fire broke out there.

The stories coming out are terrible,the tv footage shows just how wild this is. Apart from the fact that it is believed that many of these fires have been started on purpose, the situation has been made so much worse by the fact that we had a very dry winter this year, its been baking hot (35 -40 degrees) nearly all summer, and there have been very strong winds the last 4 days which is why many people have suddenly found themselves surrounded by fire.

In the long term the enviromental damage is going to be horrendous.

From what I can see your relatives should be safe Xanthipi.

map of fires

Thanks Marina for your concern!

My sil is very scared - she3 says that it is arsonists and they do not know where the next fire is going ot break out. They cannot sleep atnight. The whole village is on constant watch.

the trouble is that there are not enough firefighters and planes to take people to safe places.

Lamia has been affecteed

It's really awful for all those out there. I hope there are plans to contain the fire or is it just being left to run its course

They were speculating on the news this morning that some of the fires might have been set by property developers as a 'shortcut' Whilst I'm sure they didn't intend for it to end up like this, I hope that if it's true they get done for more than arson. I heard the story of the mother and her children and it just made me feel sick to my stomach.

TM - I think it's too big to control now, I think it's down to protecting what they can and just letting it take its course as safely as possible.

there are not enough fire fighters
the wind keeps changing so they cannot control it.

just seen that I have repeated myslef!!

Thank you Pollylogos.

You're right: that area is OK. (For now.) That's great you managed to find that map.

It must be strange to be in Greece while all this is happening. National emergency, anxiety, everyone glued to the news etc. I'm sure it's difficult.

sparkler ,one of the people evacuated from the heath in Poole was one of my friends,in fact she had her story of it in one of the magazines.!The heath is directly at the back of her garden

mummylin - I know there was a house in the road next to ours who had their gutters melted. The fire got that close to them. Looking out the window as I type and am glad to say the heath is starting to grow back now.

my friend lives in P***n road and heath is behind them.Their pic was in the echo