A Sky Ablaze

(This post was originally written on 25th July 2023, but due to delays is only being posted now. Apologies!)​

​As expats we are incredibly lucky to be able to live in a wonderful country, namely Greece. The people are friendly, the views are fabulous, the coastlines and islands are great and the weather is most agreeable. But this story is not about us.
As we have seen over the past few years, there can be disadvantages to living the good life in the wake of global warming, and that is wildfires. Greece is not alone in these tragedies. America has had to deal with these for years as have many countries that regularly have record temperatures.
But I would like to concentrate on Greece if I may, because we have first hand, personal experience of how frightening it can be to be caught up in these life threatening situations. When you are surrounded by fire, your fence is ablaze, the smoke is thick and you have a Jaguar X-Type that you have to get 6 dogs and 3 humans in - well you make it work. It's scary as hell when you can feel the heat when you are in the car driving through the gate.
As I said, these experiences are terrifying for the civilians living in the affected areas, but bear a thought for those brave souls who have to deal with these situations. The firefighters and volunteers from all services, but particularly to the two brave firefighting pilots who sadly lost their lives today doing a job I hope they loved and I'm sure believed in. Whatever the cause of the crash, they died protecting human lives, property, wildlife and the environment, which in my eyes, makes them heroes and our thoughts are with their families, friends and work colleagues who continue battling these fires. 
So we go from heroes to thoughtless idiots (insert stronger language at your discretion). Most of these fires are not started by accident. They are arson, pure and simple, and the people who set them are reprehensible scum who when caught, and most of them are, should be locked up for life. Too many lives, human or otherwise, have been lost to these fires. Being locked up is too good for them, but it's the best we have.
So we had another fire last week (17/07/23) in our area, and it was pretty bad and got quite close. From the top balony of our home, we watched as the hills to the North were aflame in a line of fire at least 3 kilometers long, and the glow of the flames rising over the peak of the mountain that separated us from the next town over. We could see the many fire engines travelling to and from the station, as well as the cars of the people evacuating, trying to find their way to safety.
The following day, a local venue that itself was in danger from the fires, had a firework display and they weren't the only ones. Sheer and utter thoughtlessness and madness! I don't give a rats arse what the event was, the display should have been cancelled. A few days after the fire, we drove past this venue and found the surrounding area had been burnt to black and ash from the original fire - sixty seconds was plenty of time to start another blaze and it shows utter contempt and disrespect for the firefighters and volunteers who, only 24 hours before, had been putting their lives on the line to protect human and animal lives. In that fire last week, an animal sanctuary lost over 40 cats and around 20 dogs. Pure reckless stupidity and shame on those who let the display go ahead and those that it was for. Moronic behavior like that doesn't deserve to be in the gene pool. 
The Greek government does have regulations about public displays, but bearing in mind the regularity and severity of these fires these policies need changing and changing now. Just as in the UK all fireworks should be banned to the general public, and all displays should be banned for at least 4 to 6 months during the summer. That is the least the government can do to honour those who have lost their lives battling this ever increasing threat.
So, spare a thought not only for those pilots, but for all the other services and volunteers who battle the flames, treat those who are injured, or the civilians who got in their personal vehicles to rescue animals from a sanctuary, as well as those sanctuary volunteers. Those people are the ones who should be respected, and those people are the heroes.

Addition, 13/09/2023: Last week, almost 2 whole months after the fires, Greece suffered from severe flooding caused by bad weather. Driveways and streets turned into rivers, tables in Monastiraki square being swept away with the water, and the high winds and water causing walls to break apart and even roadside bins to sink into the ground. We were lucky in that the worst we suffered was losing power occasionally, but there were many others who faced the dangers of these floods and the storms. This includes the very few, but never forgotten, 15 (and perhaps more) people that lost their lives in these floods.
Our thoughts go out to their fmailies, as well as those who have suffered in these floods. And, of course, the emergency services and volunteers working tirelessly to help everyone they can.

(Original art by me)