Fire on Hydra

[Metaxia]

Dear Kelsey,

thank you so much for your information on the islands situation! I think you did a great job with it, especially under this dramatic circumstances! I´m looking forward to your Mandraki report.

Hope you get rest now, from the exertions of the last days.

Thank you,
Metaxia

[lizzytysh]

Hi Kelsey ~

Welcome to the Forum from me, too . We are all so relieved that Hydra is still at least basically okay and that you and others are on the job for working toward correction, so this kind of thing won't happen again. The dry days and years seem to be continuing so it appears to be a growing threat.

We really appreciate your coverage of this. When I went to your site, my first thought was that Hydra had a newspaper that I had somehow missed. What a great service you perform for locals and people beyond the Aegean! Day before yesterday, I browsed it, checking out different sections and was very impressed by your coverage. I thought I saw something on the upper right that suggested one could subscribe to it. I planned to check it out later and still will. If I can, I will. If not, I'll just check it for ongoing news. You're doing a great job!!

I know you must be relieved and looking forward to the deep kind of rest that follows crisis. Thanks for being there and here for us!


~ Lizzy

[hydriot]

I am now on the island. Yesterday, a helicopter with water-tank slung beneath it patrolled overhead. Today it has been stood-down. This afternoon, I had lunch at Vlichos and walked on to Palamidas, where a friendly fire truck from the mainland stands sentinel.

The damage visible along the north coast of the island west of the port (i.e. the part most familiar to visitors) is NOT as severe as reports suggested, which is a tremendous relief. There's a nasty black scar around the donkey-path that cuts up the east side of Hydra's harbour-bay. But (although I have not looked closely yet) the area leading up towards the monasteries of Ephraxia and Profitii Illii seemed green as I came in on the boat. I have not yet been to Mandraki, where I imagine there will be much devastation.

Visible at Palamidas are two burnt patches high on the east side, but the beautiful wood on the west side that shades the road leading to Episcopi seemed completely untouched. I am informed that the wonderful beautiful forests around Molos and Bisti were never threatened (however, I have been told that two houses were destroyed at Episcopi).

Above the west end of Vlichos there are two interesting burnt patches, each about 100 yards by 100 yards. I say 'interesting' because there are untouched trees between the two, and further green trees above them on the ridge. The implication is that the fire did not advance linearly, as in the US or Australia, but rather that airborne sparks set many small fires all over the place.

I also noticed that many burnt trees with black trunks actually still had green foliage at their tops ... so perhaps they have a chance to recover.

It is very sad that the beach at Limnionitsa (over the back of the island) is reported destroyed, even the beach umbrellas catching fire. However, it is important to stress that there are no forests in the east of the island, nor along the south face of the island between Klemaki and Episcopi, the two areas reported as 'devastated'. While I have not visited these areas since the nineties (and do not intend to until it is cooler at the end of this month), what will have been burnt there is scrub ... acres and acres of thistles. They will recover quickly. So the report that two-thirds of the island has been burnt may be accurate geographically, but that doesn't mean two thirds of the trees. The important thing is that reports say that the fire was stopped well before the magnificent thick forests in the west.

We are extremely fortunate that there was not much wind those days. Today, the meltemi came, and at Vlichos I wished I had brought a surf board!

[lizzytysh]

Thanks for that very encouraging report, Hydriot . I know you're happy about the forests. I would love to visit those my next time there.

What's the meltimi? Is there a period of high water activity?

Does your house smell at all of smoke?


~ Lizzy

[Andrew (Darby)]

Hydriot, thank you for your fulsome and (thankfully) heartening report!

I was really dismayed when I first heard about the fires and have been hoping that the damage was minimal - I know first hand how much destruction they do over here.

I hope Hydra is better prepared (in terms of mitigation strategies) as a result of this serious and sobering occurence, so that future fire risk is minimised!

Cheers
Andrew (Darby)

[lizzytysh]

... and thanks for answering me privately on my questions, Hydriot.


~ Lizzy

[Dem]

And what about the ex and present Mayors
of Hydra?

Are they still strolling free on the harbor?

Dem

[lizzytysh]

Death Toll From Greek Fires Reaches 44
By PETROS GIANAKOURIS
Associated Press Writer

Forest fires sweeping uncontrolled across southern Greece have killed 44 people, some found Saturday in the charred homes of mountain villages reached too late by rescue crews hampered by powerful winds. New blazes erupted across the country, including a fire on the fringes of Athens.

The deadliest fire was in the western Peloponnese region of southern Greece, where at least 38 people were killed in mountain villages near the town Zaharo, the fire department said. A massive fire whipped by strong winds continued to burn out of control.

Firefighters searching through charred houses after daybreak found 10 bodies in the village of Makistos, the department said. They were believed to include a mother and her four children reported missing during the night.

Nine of those killed near Zaharo - including three firefighters - died after a car crashed into a fire truck and led to a pile up as people tried to flee the area, the fire department said. The smoldering remains of the fire truck lay overturned in a gully, and the charred wreckage of cars and a motorbike were strewn across the road.

"This is a day of national mourning," said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who visited the afflicted areas and chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting. "We are fighting against heavy odds, on many fronts and under particularly tough conditions."

Hot, dry winds gusting to gale force were expected to continue Saturday before abating in the evening. The winds frequently prevented firefighting planes from taking off, leaving mainly ground forces to fight the flames in the southern Peloponnese, occasionally helped by helicopters.

Since Friday morning, more than 170 blazes have raged from the western Ionian islands to Ioannina in northwest Greece, and down to the south. A recent three-day heat wave, in which temperatures have touched 104 Fahrenheit, has left forests and shrubland parched.

New fires broke out Saturday, and fears grew that the death toll could rise as rescue crews reached villages that had been surrounded by walls of flames during the night. The military was sending 500 soldiers and several helicopters to join the firefighting.

Desperate villagers and local mayors called television and radio stations to plead for help.

Authorities evacuated nuns from a convent and closed off a major highway on Mount Ymittos near Athens as flames approached the capital's eastern outskirts, damaging buildings in the Papagou suburb, the fire department said. Firemen assisted by water-dropping aircraft and hundreds of volunteers brought the blaze under partial control. No injuries were reported.

Arson was suspected in the blaze, said fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis.

Five of the dead were found to the southeast, near a hotel on the outskirts of the town of Areohoro, while a sixth - a firefighter - died of a heart attack while trying to battle the blaze.

A fire on the island of Evia north of the capital grew through the night, and the authorities declared a state of emergency in the area, said Sofia Moutsou, the mayor of the town of Styra. At least three villages were evacuated, the fire department's Diamandis said.

"If we don't stop this now there will be nothing left," Moutsou said early Saturday. She was hoping ferries could transport fire trucks to the island to help tackle the blaze.

Greece appealed for help from European Union countries. France, Germany, Spain and non EU-member Norway were sending firefighting aircraft, and Cyprus offered firefighters and trucks.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was "saddened by the tragic loss of human lives" and voiced hope that member states would send assistance.

Greece has suffered its worst summer for forest fires this year, with hundreds of blazes burning thousands of hectares of forest and brushland.

With early elections just three weeks away, the devastating fires are certain to become a political issue. The government has come under criticism for its response to previous fires, which killed 10 people.

____

Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this report.

This is horror. I pray for all of Greece and all of its people. May Hydra have taken some preventive measures by now. They just made the point on NPR that at first these fires were an ecological issue, but now they've taken on a huge, human dimension.


~ Lizzy

[Sophia]

I can't describe it. Tragedy.

Sophia

[blonde madonna]

Dear Sophia
The news reports are hard to believe. There are reports that some of the fires have been deliberately lit, it is too horrible and sad to contemplate. I hope you and your family and friends are safe.

[lizzytysh]

I was just coming to ask if you are okay, Sophia. I don't know where you live in relationship to where the near-Athens ones are, but with arson and winds it could end up anywhere.

From what I'm hearing, it's not gotten better but worse. The descriptions I'm reading and hearing are tragic beyond belief. The photographs are terrifying.

I'm praying for your, your family and friends, and everyone's safety.


Love,
Lizzy

[Sophia]

I'm ok, thanks for your concern, most of the fires are in the Peloponnese and Evia, where at least 53 people were killed in mountain villages.It's chaos here,it smells burnt everywhere and I've just learnt that one of the firefighters that lost their lives when a car crashed into the fire truck and flames encircled them, was a cousin of my friend.
It goes beyond all reason.

Sophia

[lizzytysh]

I'm so sorry, Sophia. The mountain villages situation sounds archaic in the ways people were trapped. Coming in here, I just read where the wind seems to have died down some. It could take up, again, but hopefully they'll be able to get some control of it during this reprieve. Seeing people on their property with garden hoses, as flames wildly blazed just beyond was such a picture of helplessness. It all is unfathomable. Again, I'm so sorry about your friend's cousin. So terribly close to home, all of it.


Love,
Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Horrifying. The death toll is still rising, as conditions seem to have worsened, again, with this report as of 7 minutes ago [the Bolding within the body of the article is mine]:

Greek fires reach ancient Olympics site

By PETROS GIANNAKOURIS, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago



ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - Massive fires consuming large areas of southern Greece for a third day raced toward the site of the ancient Olympics on Sunday, engulfing villages and forests as the flames reached one of the most revered sites of antiquity.

At least 57 people have been killed in the country's worst wildfires in decades, including five who died Sunday in a new blaze on the island of Evia and a woman whose body was found in a village near Ancient Olympia. There were fears the death toll could rise as new fires broke out and strong winds pushed flames through villages and hamlets.

"It's hell everywhere," said Costas Ladas, who said the fire covered more than a mile in three minutes. "I've never seen anything like it."

By sea and by land, authorities evacuated hundreds of people trapped by flames in villages, hotels and resorts.

A large front of fire was just at the edge of the village of Ancient Olympia, which stands near the 2,800-year-old site itself. Police blocked roads, and firefighting planes flew overhead.

"The winds are so strong that I don't know whether the site's sprinkling system will stop it," said Costas Sofianos, deputy mayor of Ancient Olympia. Although the sprinkler system was activated, not all of it appeared to be functioning.

The fire department said some trees at the sprawling site had burned, but that the museum was safe. The ancient stadium and other monuments were so far unaffected.

In the early morning, church bells rang out in nearby Kolyri as residents gathered their belongings and fled through the night. Villagers returned to find at least seven gutted houses.

Fotis Hadzopoulos, a resident, said the evacuation was chaotic. "Children were crying, and their mothers were trying to comfort them, " he said.

The worst of Greece's fires — 42 major fronts — were concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in southern Greece and on Evia north of Athens. New fires also broke out Sunday in the central region of Fthiotida — one of the few areas that had been unscathed, fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said.

Arson has been blamed in several cases, and seven people have been detained.

Although a temporary drop in the ferocity of high winds early in the morning provided brief respite in Ancient Olympia, they intensified later in the day.

"Unfortunately the improvement that we were looking for is not there," Diamandis said. "Our target is for the fire not to enter Ancient Olympia, not to destroy antiquities."

The Culture Ministry said "all means are being used, and all necessary measures have been taken" to save the site, and that the army had been called in to create a fire break.

The fire blazed into the nearby village of Varvasaina, destroying several houses. As residents rushed to battle the flames, others, stunned, walked the streets holding their heads in their hands.

Across the country, churchgoers prayed for the blazes to abate.

"Fires are burning in more than half the country," Diamandis said. "This is definitely an unprecedented disaster for Greece."

Elsewhere, flames were less than two miles from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios, a 2,500-year-old monument near the town of Andritsaina in the southwestern Peloponnese, said the town's mayor, Tryphon Athanassopoulos.

"We are trying to save the Temple of Apollo, as well as Andritsaina itself," he told Greek television.

A separate blaze had abated Sunday in Kalyvia, an area between Athens and the ancient site of Sounion to the south.

Nearly 1,000 soldiers, backed by military helicopters, reinforced firefighters stretched to the limit.

In the ravaged mountain villages in the Peloponnese, rescue crews on Saturday picked through a grim aftermath that spoke of last-minute desperation as the fires closed in.

Dozens of charred bodies have been found across fields, homes, along roads and in cars, including the remains of a mother hugging her four children.

At least 12 countries were sending reinforcements, and six water-dropping planes from France and Italy joined operations Sunday.

The worst-affected region was around the town of Zaharo, south of Ancient Olympia. Thick smoke, which blocked out the summer sun, could be seen more than 60 miles away. The blaze broke out Friday and quickly engulfed villages, trapping dozens of people and killing at least 37. Scores of people were treated in hospitals for burns and breathing problems.

The government, which has declared a nationwide state of emergency, announced Sunday it would offer up to $13,000 to people who lost relatives or property.

____

Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens and John F.L. Ross in Varvasaina contributed to this report.

Sophia and Demetris, wherever you are, I hope you're out of harm's way. I've bolded two things that make this seem far from over. Pray for all of Greece and its people. I'm listening to Anjani's album "The Sacred Names," wherein she has written and composed, and sings songs with "the Holy Names in the Hebrew and Greek tongues." It's beautiful and soothing and I'm listening to it, now, as a prayer and meditation on behalf of the beautiful Greek people and their ancient sites and all of their safety, most importantly the people.

Sending my love to Greece and all of your dear people in the only way I know how at this moment. You and your country are suffering a horrible tragedy, a tragic blow. My heart and soul are with you. I feel the same with the French couple who were there hiking, simply enjoying the many beauties of Greece, and died together in the fires.


Love,
Lizzy

[jenkelland]

Hi everyone,
I live on Hydra and found your posts about the fire through a Google search. I just thought I'd let you know that David Fagan and I have posted pictures of the fire and its aftermath on our website at http://www.davidfagan.org. Happily, despite the devastation that the pictures show, much of the southwestern side of the island was left untouched, so Hydra town and the villages of Mandraki, Kamini, Vlichos, Palomitha, and Molos, and the beaches of Bisti and Agios Nikolaos are all intact and still green with forest. We certainly consider ourselves lucky not to have experienced this fire during the last week, when all of those fantastically brave firefighting pilots might not have been available to preserve what they did!
All the best,
Jen Kelland