Greece Fires

Hey, all. We've gotten several concerned emails asking us if all is well where we are in Greece, since it seems like the whole country is on fire. Panagiota and I were on one of the local islands for the last couple of days, and on our ferry ride out to the island we caught a news report about fires in the southern part of the country. We soon forgot about the fires, though, since we were busy swimming in pristine waters and soaking up the warm Ionian sun. On our way back to the mainland, Pegs' mother called to warn us that the roads might be closed heading back to town, and shortly after we got off the ferry we could see smoke clouds covering the horizon from miles and miles away. We could tell that the fires were intense, but we didn't fully appreciate how bad it was until we got closer to a mountain that we had to pass on our way back; the whole hillside was mottled with flames and plumes of smoke, but still it looked “manageable”. Then, as we rounded a bend in the road, we realised that the fire had already consumed everything on the other side of the mountain. We drove through kilometer after kilometer of charred forests, burned all the way to the road, but thankfully most of the houses and farms looked like they had been spared or saved. Still, the devastation along the road was unbelievable. In certain areas, it looked like bombs had gone off, the area was so barren and burned. In other places we passed, trees and other plantlife were still burning as farmers and emergency personnel tried to put out the flames before they spread to the olive groves and homes. It was like something out of a bad movie, only terribly real. For now, my in-laws' hometown is safe, but it is situated between two large fires at Kalamata and Zaharo, so we (and everyone else in Greece) are watching the news carefully. New fires are still popping up, and the news just reported a new fire in the town twenty minutes away where we filled up for gas. There's not much we can do for the moment other than wait and hope for the best; we'll keep you informed if there are any local developments.