Athens Greeknotes 2 Aug

The ugly Writing this amid gloomy news — a huge wildfire is burning Ψαθα (Psatha), the seaside area an hour west of here where I went swimming a couple of weeks ago, and where I spent my last birthday weekend. The area is (was) notable for its beautiful green pine forests cascading into the sea, devastating. Ψαθα, three weeks ago. The green forest on the mountains is huge More devastating,Two killed after firefighting helicopters collide, as British pilot survives this afternoon while battling the fire, killing the heroic greek and danish men flying one of them. Tragedy upon tragedy. The fire season reached greece this week after tearing through france and spain, largely due to the 100kph winds and kindle-dry landscape. The wind has been so strong that the temps have dropped below 30ºC all week, but also means fire fighting planes have been unable to scoop water or fly over fires making everything worse. You can see how enticing to flames it is here just from my desiccated local urban…