current events firegeezer on 28 Aug 2007 05:31 pm
An Island Full Of Stories
THE PELOPONNESE HAS BEEN taking the biggest hit by the hundreds of wildfires in Greece. No families on the island are untouched by the disaster and the economy, largely dependent on tourists visiting the picture-perfect beaches, has been destroyed.
Reuters is relating this poignant tale:
“What is there to do now? My life has been turned upside down,” said Panagiotis Panagopoulos, who lost his mother and sister in the flames.
“We stood in awe as the flames rose to tens of metres and just scorched everything.”
Sitting at his hotel and surrounded by relatives and friends, Mr Panagopoulos said the two women had gone to save their goats just north of the town but had no time to escape the racing flames.
His silent father, sitting near him, nursed burns on his hands, face and feet. He had attempted to retrieve them but it was too late, relatives said.
“There was no time to do anything,” his 17-year-old son Thanassis said. “The flames just grew and grew in seconds and we could do nothing. We lost them.”
“We fought a losing battle and in the end we were left with this,” he said pointing to the nearby forest of blackened tree trunks. “How do you rebuild that? You can’t.”
