Greek Island Samos – Votsalakia

Once again the beautiful island of Samos has been on fire! Thanks to the many fire fighters and to the Greek army, all fires are out! There is no danger and all tourists are back in their hotels by now and enjoy the beaches of Samos.

The latest fire had started on Monday evening in Marathokampos and Limnionas and is under control. This means there are no fires burning currently on Samos Island. Because of the still strong wind, the fire brigades remain in place to prevent any new outbreaks of fire in the area. 26 firemen, 13 fire vehicles, 88 people from the forest department, 70 volunteers, most of them from the volunteer fire brigade in Marathokampos, and four helicopters where fighting the fire for the whole night.

Only three days later the fires started on the other end of Samos and in an area where the wind gain speed going downhill towards the villages. The catastrophic event began on Monday, in the late afternoon, when behind the villages Marathokampos and Limnionas Beach the fire bells rang. Soon after the flames where seen to come down from the hills to the first houses of the villages. The strong winds from the north, that are typical for this season, they are called Meltemi drove the fire forward with speed. Since there are only two streets leading out of the area and goes right through the village of Marathokampos, the evacuation of tourists from hotels was initiated. Tourists got escorted to the waiting busses and with help of the police and the Greek army everything went smooth and without any problems.

As reason for the outbreak of the fire in Votsalakia, on the island of Samos was a family of beekeepers and a friend. Aparently a spark from the bee-keepers’ device to create smoke had ignited the fire when the wind blew in. 10,000 acres of farmland and forests have burned down in less than two days. Thankfully nobody was badly injured. According to our source in Samos, the bee-keepers son was a fire fighter himself.

Samos was just recovering from a large fire that broke out over the village of Kokkari last Tuesday. A lot of help has come very fast from Athens this time. Troupes of fire fighters with fire trucks and equipment have arrived in Samos as fast as humanly possible and the fire was extinguished on Friday the 28th of July. Now that all fires are out, we all hope that we have seen enough fires on Samos for this year!

Top Picture by Carl Osbourn
Gallery Pictures by Karin Bentheim and Michaela Urben