Disaster in Greece....Terrible news...

[jiro]

There's a huge disaster going on at Greece right now........

Almost half of their country's been burned under the biggest fire man kind ever had.....

And it's only getting worse even at this very moment....

More than 60 people died....Hundreds are injured....

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My prayer goes to all of the people in Greece......May god have mercy on you......

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/27...s.ap/index.html

[jkarpas]

thank you for your condolences.. its really terrible enormous amounts of forest have been burned to ashes and many ppl died. We still dont know who did this and for what reason. Maybe it has to do with the elections being close.

I hope this tragedy stops soon.

[dluddy]

Truly a travesty, both physically and environmentally. It is sad to think that arson could be behind this

[giorgio]

My grandmother was going on about foreign developers setting the fires last month, and I thought she was just going crazy. Seems like there might actually be something to that angle. I hope it's not true and they can get this under control before there are more casualties.

[Victoria]

There's a huge disaster going on at Greece right now........

Almost half of their country's been burned under the biggest fire man kind ever had.....

Horrible, horrible, my deepest condolences not just to the people lost, but to the architectural wonders (which contrary to popular ideas are not all located in Athens) in peril.

It's hard to put up OT threads about every single event, nor truly needed, but it would've been nice for someone to have done so about the 8.0 earthquake in Lima. I only mentioned something in the Shoutbox. I've been there, and though fault-ridden as so many South American cities are, it's a GORGEOUS city, architecturally. Deeply Roman Catholic that I am, the churches alone I will never forget. I wonder what was lost, as I didn't keep up with the news afterwards.

Back to Greece.

I recall an historical anecdote about another fire, this time suspected arson, when the Royal Family were almost burned alive in 1917, at their country retreat of Tatoi.

WWI was raging, and Greece (despite a lot of arm-pulling from both the Central and Entente Powers), remained neutral. It was thought this was because of Queen Sophie, a sister of the infamous Kaiser Bill. In reality, she couldn't have been more British in her demeanour, if you tried. So one day, the entire Royal Family were taking a tramp in the woods outside of Tatoi, and suddenly they saw a MASSIVE fire raging towards them. They unceremoniously started to run, and run, and the women started to fall behind. That's when King Constantine, all 6'4" of him, picked up two women by the armpits and raised them over his shoulder, and ran. One was the Queen, the other, her lady-in-waiting. Thus, the entire Royal Family were saved, and the trees surrounding Tatoi actually spared the Royal Palace.

I daresay Greece has seen a lot of fires in its time, and they are a strong nation, with a strong people willing to shoulder many burdens, from top to bottom.

My best wishes to all.

[KB]

Thoughts and prayers coming from Australia for not just our members but all the people of Greece.

Here in Australia we are very familiar with both bush fires and arsonist's (often just another name for murderers)

Ken