THIS year, there have been more fires in southern Europe than ever before. It’s easy to say it’s the fault of global warming. True, it’s hot. True, the countryside is tinder dry. True, water resources are at their lowest; but apart from lightning strikes, fires don’t just start without our negligence.
I know: I almost caused one last summer. It was all a big mistake, just doing some gardening in our house in the Peloponnese, thought it sensible to burn the leaves and debris at dusk when the prevailing wind blew off the land and out to sea. Love bonfires, reminiscent of autumn days and windfalls. Lit the pile and within seconds I had set light to the branch of an olive tree. It crackled and burst into flames like a Roman Candle. It was easy to see how just one gust of wind would carry the burning bat leaves from one tree to another racing away. Fortunately, I had kept the hose nearby, but worried neighbours exploded out of their houses screaming at me.
I was duly told off, stupid foreigner, infidel, Satan’s arsonist… not quite sure what all the phrases were exactly. but I could tell they weren’t ‘whoops silly you’.
I hung head in shame. Didn’t I realise that at that very moment fire fighters from the airport at Kalamata would be scrambling and that all our houses would be doused in thick white foam? I didn’t, but I soon learnt how justifiably frightened my fellow hillside dwellers were. They all had stories to tell of houses destroyed and lives lost.
So how do the fires start? Well, all this week I have read the papers, and no one admits responsibility. The truth is, they start because of human error, glass bottles that act as magnifying glasses thrown in the undergrowth, cigarette butts thrown from cars, mountain barbeque picnics that go wrong, and worst of all people doing it deliberately to clear land, for fun or because, like me, they were too lazy to bag up rubbish and take it to a tip.
Forest fires are illegal in Cyprus. But according to the government statistics, 91 per cent of the fires are caused by human activity, in other words we are setting light to our island. So, stop whinging about global warming, it’s too easy to blame external forces. Realise that the enemy is within, not without. If, like me, you enjoy going into the woods late at night, cooking sausages over a camp fire, singing songs and generally playing at Robinson Crusoe, you must take responsibility for your actions.
As my red-faced and cross neighbours in Koroni told me, the bill for umpteen helicopters being called out and fire engines coming to my door would be mine to pay. It’s illegal to light any outdoor fire anywhere in the Messinias from May to October. I was irresponsible and I got my metaphorical fingers burnt.
And, as if to prove how easy it is, just yesterday I was walking in suburban Nicosia near my house. Some chaps in front lit up and threw their match into the bushes; within seconds, the dry yellow grass began to smoulder. I wished I could have remembered some of the colourful invective of my Greek friends but, unfortunately, by the time I had stamped the fire out with my flip-flops they had gone. Oblivious, laughing, the first no doubt to watch the TV, mutter, swear and blame someone else. The arsonist is in us all.
