Fire on the mountain! - excerpt from my dairies part 16 (1991)

Fire on the mountain

It was about four o’clock in the morning one summer night when I awoke to hear a strange crackling noise coming from the fields behind the apartments where I was staying. I tumbled sleepily out of bed and went onto the balcony to discover what it could be. Looking out towards the main road I could see, some distance away, a fire. The crackling I could hear was the sound of the flames in the trees. I rushed outside, as I could hear voices, to discover that the fire brigade had already been called. I was not unduly worried, the flames were quite some distance away and we were in no danger.

By daylight however the situation was much more alarming. The flames were much closer. There was no sign of any firefighters and we, who lived in the apartments, gathered together and watched the advancing flames. I went back inside and gathered my important papers and put them ready pick up in an emergency.

After some time we heard the sound of a helicopter approaching.

“Good,” said Carol, a girl who was staying in another of the apartments, “At last something is happening. The fire’s getting a bit close to us now and the wind is in this direction.” We looked up at the sky.

“It’s not the fire service,” I told her “It’s the local television channel. Trust them to arrive before the fire brigade!” The helicopter was by this time swooping around taking photographs of the fire.

We had moved onto one of the upstairs balconies to get a better view and several people from Georgioupolis had arrived to join in the fun.

“Have you got a light?” asked Michalis from the car hire shop, who happened to be dropping of a hire car. - Well that was his story I suspected he was just being nosy.

“You want a light when the whole place is about to go up in flames?” Carol was indignant. “Why don’t you go and help Sifis with his water pump?”

Sifis, the owner of the apartments, had found an old stirrup pump and was trying to persuade it to work, without much success, the trickle of water that came out was worse than useless.

“Look at that girl who is renting number three,” whispered Carol, leaning towards me, “ she’s changed her outfit twice since the television cameras arrived.” As we watched her she once again went into her room and a few moments later came out wearing yet another outfit. We couldn’t help laughing. “What a time to worry about your appearance.” Carol chuckled, “I think she fancies Manos from the next room.”

“Do you think I should pack my bags in case we have to clear out?” She asked me a few minutes later.

“I already put all my important stuff together, passport and so on” I told her. “I have too many things to try to move it all.”

Eventually we heard the sound of fire engines.

“Only five hours after the alarm was raised,” I observed “If they had come immediately they could have put out the fire before it got to this stage. I wonder what caused the delay."

As well as the fire tenders two water carrying helicopters had arrived, and were scooping up water from the lake and dropping it on the flames.

Fire engines from Vrysses

Looking over to the next door balcony I could see that Carol was being chatted up by one of the Georgioupolis residents, several of whom had come to watch the fun.

“I couldn’t get away from him,” she told me later. “We were on that bit of unfinished balcony with no railing and I couldn’t get past him. The strange thing was that he ducked and turned his head away every time the television cameras were pointing our way.”

I laughed. “Not so strange, I explained, he’s 'well known' down at the local cop shop.”

“You’re kidding!” Carol, for once, was almost speechless.

“No, really, he has been 'helping them with their enquiries'  So it’s no surprise he doesn’t want his face all over the evening news.”

As we were talking an old man came up to us.

“I wouldn’t stay if the fire gets much closer,” he advised us “During the war there was an underground ammunition dump just behind here.” He moved away, throwing his lighted cigarette butt into the dry undergrowth. We just looked at each other! “That’s a comforting thought,” remarked Carol. “Do you think it’s true?”

“Anything’s possible around here, I replied.

As we watched, the olive trees in the fields behind us caught light. Whoosh! The whole vicinity was now full of smoke and a lot of valuable trees were going up in flames. Eventually after several hours the blaze was brought under control, much to our relief. The next day the extent of the damage was evident. Large tracts of woodland and olive groves were blackened and smouldering.The farmer who owned most of the land was counting his losses, many acres had been ruined, a lot of which could have been saved if the emergency services had arrived earlier.

Note: Apokoronas now has a fire station at Vrysses as well as emergency volunteers with a fire engine based at Nippos. At the time of the diaries the emergency services had to come from Hania.

The badge of the Apokoronas emergency volunteers

Photographs courtesy of "Haniotika Nea" and Apokoronas Life