fires

[kaz]

just found this article, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6896195.stm

[Jamie_Mac]

thats scary kaz , i stayed in troulos 4 years ago and it was brill. It,ll be a right mess now , i think johns going there in september.


jamie

[Jamie_Mac]

just found this in ekathimerini

jamie


NEWS


Three firemen killed, one hurt in Cretan blaze
Victims trapped due to changing wind


ANA
Rescue workers carry the body of one of the three firefighters killed yesterday while battling a blaze outside Rethymnon, Crete. In what local officials had described as being a low-danger fire, the three men were trapped by the blaze after a sudden change in wind direction. A fourth firefighter is in the hospital with serious burns.


Three firefighters died and another was seriously injured yesterday on the island of Crete while fighting a forest fire when the blaze trapped them due to a sudden change in wind direction, according to authorities.

The three, who were on seasonal contracts, perished after becoming trapped by the blaze in a gorge in the Doxaro area, outside of the city of Rethymnon on Crete's northeast coast.

The three men, between the ages of 34 and 40, had almost 20 years of firefighting experience among them.

A fourth firefighter was hospitalized with serious burns from the wildfire, which started around 2 p.m.

According to a local municipal official, the firefighters were trapped while fighting the blaze when, due to a sudden change in wind direction, the fire surrounded them and prevented them from being able to escape.

A fourth firefighter was taken to a local hospital with burns on 40 percent of his body, a quarter of which are second degree.

Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras said of the victims, «We honor them as genuine heroes for their sacrifice and tragic deaths.»

«We always stress during training exercises the priority given to the safety of the human lives of firefighters and others,» said the minister.

An internal investigation has been ordered into the incident.

Fanned by strong winds, the fire continued to burn on four different fronts yesterday afternoon. It was being fought by 54 firefighters, 13 fire trucks and a water-dropping helicopter.

Greece has been ravaged by forest fires this summer after a dry winter. As temperatures soared, it took about a week to bring under control a forest fire that destroyed more than half a national park on Mount Parnitha, north of Athens.

According to official data, 16 firefighters have been killed in the line of duty since 1998, of whom seven were involved in forest fire operations.

The deadliest fire in recent years was in Karea, eastern Athens, when four firefighters lost their lives.

[Janey]

OMG it feels all the more worst when you have been there.

[john]

It's that time of year again! I remember reading all the warnings of what was to come after the dry winter. It has to be scary for everyone but even more so for any holidaymakers who have never seen anything like that.
Remember the people in Halkidiki the other year, and was it Thassos which suffered a massive blaze several years ago?
I put a clip on here a while ago, it was shot by a guy living on Kefalonia and there was a massive fire around 200 yards from his house. It looked even more scary because it was filmed at night.
I'll see if i can find the link.

[jed.w]

I've looked for that Youtube clip John - no luck.

jed.w

[Michelle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEIihXw29u0

there you go Jed.

[john]

Here's a couple of pics of the Skiathos fires i found on another site. The devastation is unbelievable. Some of the trees on Skiathos are very old and it will take the landscape a long time to fuly recover from this.

[Teggsy]

Thats a crying shame John,were the fires anywhere near where your staying John?

Shaz

[john]

The site i got the pics off is http://skiathosinfo.com/
They have a message board and there are a lot of comments from people who live on the island and experienced it at first hand.
It was obviously a harrowing experience. At one point there were around 1500 people who had been moved onto Aghia Parevski beach and the fire actually reached the north end of the beach and set fire to the sunbeds!