Greece Fires: An Exquisitely Beautiful Country Comes Under Fire

Many grease fires, I've heard, can be dealt with quickly: A healthy dose of baking soda or a strategically placed wet towel can effectively smother the flames.
Unfortunately, there is no towel large enough and no amount of baking soda that can save Greece from the fires that have ravaged the country since Friday, August 24. I had not immediately grasped the enormity of the situation until I saw a NASA photograph taken from space. Seeing that blew my mind; Greece was, and is, clearly under siege.

Often, tragedy brings about both ingenuity and heroism, as demonstrated by George Dimopoulos in Makistos, Greece via The New York Times:

When the water ran out, with pine cones popping and the flames still high around his house, George Dimopoulos switched to wine. He made it himself two years ago, and, nearly alone in his village as it all but burned down on Friday night, he poured liter after liter, 200 in all, into his little copper hand-pumped crop sprayer, and sprayed and sprayed.

"I had nothing else," said Mr. Dimopoulos, 63.

~The New York Times, 8/27/07, In Greece, Wine Saves Lives...Full content article can be viewed here.

The fires in Greece can only be described as a national emergency. Much of the Peloponnese region in Southern Greece as well as other areas have been torched. Because of the summer heat, continued drought, gusty winds, and the fact that many of the fires popped up nearly simultaneously, firefighters were stymied on all fronts from the get-go, in their attempts to contain the flames.

"We are dealing with a national catastrophe without precedent," firefighter spokesman, Nokolaos Diamantis said, as reported in The Los Angeles Times.

In the last several days, this unprecedented rash of fires has traumatized villagers across the country and forced them to evacuate their homes. Some have waited, anxiety-ridden, hoping as they watch the smoke rise and witness flames from seemingly every direction torch the beautiful hills and olive groves they call home.

Fires sweeping across the country have brought with them both anger and questions from the Greek people. Even Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, as quoted in The Los Angeles Times said that the sheer number and simultaneous nature of the fires "cannot be a coincidence." As such, arson is cited as the primary cause. Thousands of miles away, I contemplate this. What is our world coming to when someone can gaze upon an exquisitely beautiful country like that of Greece one moment and ignite it in flames the next?

"The country is under siege and in mourning," writes Georgia Nikoloudis, a family friend of ours, from her home in Kalamata. She writes quickly, frantically, afraid of losing power and not being able to write anymore. She's been sending us e-mails straight away since the fires began.

"The sky is dark with smoke," she writes us, "Helicopters keep buzzing overhead, the electricity keeps going on and off and the television news coverage is practically non-stop and heartbreaking."

I think back to the not-so-long-ago past and I find myself standing across from the Acropolis as it glows, crimson then gold then sapphire. Music plays as the lights showcase the grandeur of Athen's most prized historical site. Days later, I sit and gaze at the sea on the island of Aegina as I crack open pistachios, as fresh as they come. I befriend orphan cats. My lips pucker at my first taste of ouzo. In Olympia, home of the ancient Greek Olympics, I pose, stupidly, with my right arm raised up as if holding an imaginary torch. I take long walks along a picturesque countryside of olive groves. I scribble down the symbols of the street names I pass along the way-- in case I get lost. This is the Greece I remember.

Now it's the people of Greece that find themselves lost in a land that, once the smoke clears, they will no longer recognize as their own.

Five days in, and Greece continues to battle the blazes with help from the European Union and other international aid. Winds have died down and fires no longer threaten populated villages as they did just a few short days ago.

However, as of today, seven arrests have been made of suspected arsonists ( with more surely to come.) Over sixty people have lost their lives and many of those who have survived lost not only their homes, but their livelihoods.

In all of this I wonder: How does a country even begin to heal after it's been forced to scatter its own ashes?

But then, these are the Greeks. If there is a group of people who can bounce back from such an overwhelming national and environmental tragedy, it would most assuredly be the Greeks.

Yet, as Georgia Nikoloudis says, "People feel so abandoned by the authorities...how to help all the families who have lost loved ones and the homeless people who have lost everything. Even before the last fire is out, this is the country's big challenge."

Resources and for more information:

Go Greece
The New York Times: Greek Leaders Criticized Over Fires
The New York Times: In Greece, Wine Saves Life...
The Los Angeles Times: Greek Government Pilloried...
The Daily Green: Environmental Impact Of Fires In Greece
An American In Athens Blog