Fire

During a mini-heatwave that we recently experienced over the weekend, lasting till today, a fire broke out in a wooded area (olive trees) close to our home. It must have been difficult to contain because the Canadair fire-fighting plane could be heard all day Sunday (until the evening when these planes don't fly due to safety restrictions), and all morning on Monday. Today, I don't hear them flying, so the fire must be out. It was probably started by a farmer clearing wood from his field, and spread with the strong warm southerly African desert winds that had caused the heatwave. Quite a few olive trees must have burnt down during this fire, as olive is a quick-burning tree.

There were two Canadair planes used in the opeartion. They went for filling to the sea, sometimes in a beach area close to my home, other times a little further away at the port of Souda. Sometimes you can see them quite close up (unfortunately they are a regular sight in the hot weather) because they fly quite low. They seem to glide slowly through the air rather than jet across the sky.The misty look in the sky was caused by the heatwave - dust clouds and cloudy weather obscured the sunlight, even though sunrise had taken place an hour ago.