Dimwits and Greek Flames


Enlarge photo

In late August, gale force winds were stoking and hurling fires all over a parched Greece. Sensational TV coverage wrongly reported that the museum at Olympia was in flames. The government, in “heck-of-a job Brownie” mode and with an election approaching in just days, was in disarray. The water dropped from planes and helicopters vaporized long before it reached any flames. While environmentalists argued against huge, military land movers cutting firebreaks, others wondered angrily where was the military? Adding to local frustration was news that the European Union had granted Greece 24 million euros ($35 million) for fire prevention purposes that had never been claimed. Gale force winds, combined with a hot dry spell, caused the fires to dance crazily in unpredictable directions. Flames were literally blown off trees, leaving them looking like Vermont in the autumn, only to travel miles away in minutes and burn another area entirely to the ground. There are all sorts of explanations for the many fires. One of the biggest theories was that they were started accidentally by the stove of a woman with Alzheimer’s. Or that developers–in order to circumvent local building codes–became arsonists. They started fires and since they suddenly had no forests that needed protecting were free to build. A dimwitted teenager seeing video coverage of planes bombing flaming forests with water wanted a closer look so he set a fire of his own — only adding to the disaster. It was a challenging time for Greece. Back in Seattle, my key staff people and I huddled at my desk determining how we as a tour company would react to the horrible fires. We diverted two tours out of the southern end of the Peloponnese and hoped/assumed things would get under control for later departures.


Enlarge photo

That “later departure” is the tour I’m on now. For lunch just the other day, our group sat on a chalet-like balcony deep in the mountains of the Peloponnese with a vast view of what should have been a green forest — all was brown, parched and burnt off. The family serving us clearly appreciated us putting up with the smell of wet ashes to enjoy their cooking and hospitality. Driving through the charred wasteland, our lunch at the family-run hotel (which we were told was saved only by its swimming pool), and wandering under hills of blackened trees as we explored the ruins of Olympia has been a poignant part of our tour. I can feel the depth of the local heartache as we ride through the fire zone only indirectly…by the wide-eyed look of concern and sadness on our bus driver, George. The Greeks are positive about their recovery, saying the only thing irreplaceable was the 63 lives lost. (The biggest loss of life came when 19 people from an engulfed village tried to flee by car and got stuck in a traffic jam. They died. Villagers who stayed survived.) Greeks recall that the island of Poros had a big fire five years ago. While pine trees take many years to grow back, today the olive trees are all green and making olives again. After a big post-fire shake-up, the new government promises fire fighting will be more effective. Airborne fire spotters are on a constant alert.

Bottom line: for travelers and the economy, the fires are old news and locals — so reliant on tourism — need the business. Other than a few bleak drives through burnt landscape, there is no real impact from the fires on anything a tourist might want to see or do. The only major tourist attraction directly impacted was the sight of the ancient Olympic Games. While the trees around its fine museum are blackened, the actual museum was saved. Flames came to the edge of the site’s tourist village and hills surrounding the ruins were thoroughly burned. We’ve traveled through the hardest hit areas, and everything is once again wide open.

Comments

10 Replies to “Dimwits and Greek Flames”

  1. Rick how I wish my wife and I could be on tour with you now! The Greek tour was our favorite tour we have taken with ETBD. Last fall when we toured Greece we traveled through mile after burnt mile in the Pelopennese, so they apparently are no strangers to large and devastating fires. While in Nafplio,as we climbed up to the Venetian fortress of Palamidi we noted the entire mountainside had recently been burned down to rock. Fires are a naturally occuring event, it is too sad when arsonists feel they must indulge their inner nuts also. Enjoy the yogurt, honey and tzatsiki.

  2. Thanks for the update on the fires. I guess the “balcony high in the mountains of the Peloponnese” was at Dimitsana? It was beautiful when I was there on the tour last year, but I’m sure it will be again. Looking forward to your take on Gerolimenas, which was a highlight for my tour.

  3. Technology could have helped fight the fire in Greece.

    Forty years ago I worked on a computer project where the intent was to store the details of the vegetation, the steepness of the hill, the prevailing winds, and all that could be thought of that would effect a fire, and the ability of firefighters to fight a fire in that area.

    The idea was, that when a fire broke out, the computer could display the features of that specific area, then they would have been able to insert the current wind and temperature, the drought conditions of that area, thereby giving the firefighters information about which direction, and in what velocity the fire might move.

    That job was many times too big for the computers that existed at that time, today you could do it in your laptop.

    That would have been a great help for Greece, and many other places in the world.

  4. I am so grateful to hear my favorite vegetarian restaurant went unharmed in the fires in Olympia. Lovely place, warm people and outstanding food.

  5. Having been on the wonderful Greece tour earlier this summer with Colin and George, the thought of that wonderful countryside now blackened and of the lives lost is very saddening.

Comments are closed.