You wake up with a biting smell in your nostrils. You rub your eyes to clear the blurry view, but the smog seems to persist.

Your mind rings a bell and you rush to the open balcony to determine what’s happening. A sudden heatwave strikes your right cheek and almost immediately engulfs your face.

The trees surrounding your house are devoured by flames. You only have a few seconds to glance at what you can grab.

The wind pushes the smog inside and there’s nothing else you can do other than attempt to run to the sea.

Barefooted and with your heart pumping frenetically you reach the shore.

You look back and a raging wall of fire is all you can decipher from the once calmly coast where your house used to sit.

The atmosphere becomes burdening with all the screams, the smog, and all the desperate people on the shore and sea.

Have I woken up in hell?

I See Fire

Now we are starting to have a clearer picture of what Ed Sheeran saw when writing his song for the Hobbit trilogy.

All jokes aside, the earth is really taking a fire blast.

Even more, this is happening worldwide, even across regions where forest fires were a thing they only saw on the news and on the internet.

If you remember, I did warn that extreme weather conditions will become a common theme this year.

Now my 2018 forecast is unfolding.

California is engulfed by flames yet again.

Greece is also experiencing a scorching ordeal.

And the havoc goes as far as Sweden and near the Arctic boarder, where temperatures have exceeded normal levels by two to three folds.

I am aware that most of you have seen footage from all these devastating events, so I will only describe the aftermath, as well as point to some possible causes for these ordeals.

California

Fires have yet again ignited in California, claiming the lives of a few misfortunate and injuring others.

About 6 people have been reportedly killed, and hundreds of properties have been burnt to the ground.

Tens of thousands of acres of vegetation have been transformed to ash.

The fires are now threatening the famous Yosemite national park, and over 3,800 firefighters have been sent to the scene to shield the groves of ancient sequoias inside the Yosemite Valley.

Fire spouts have spawned near some of the scenes, twisting the flames sky-high in a veritable spectacle of fear and amazement.

The hazard has just begun, so there is no saying if and how much the fires will escalate this year.

Greece

Never would the inhabitants of the tiny Mati resort have thought possible a catastrophe of this proportion.

The fires that have begun suddenly and have synced with powerful winds have claimed the lives of more than 80 people, and have injured hundreds.

Located only 18 miles east of the capital, Athens, the tiny resort had been burned entirely in a matter of hours.

Most people were caught by surprise and didn’t even make it out of their homes.

Some have fled to the sea only to meet another cruel demise, as the currents have taken their toll.

Over 1,500 homes were affected, many of them having been destroyed completely.

Sweden

You may or may not have heard of the wildfires spreading in this sub Antarctic region of Europe.

With temperatures not exceeding 60 degrees in any other year, Sweden was surprised by a very uncommon heatwave exceeding 86 degrees.

After a prolonged drought, more wildfires have ignited towards the end of July, burning over 19,000 hectares of land.

The Swedes saw between 30 to 70 fire spread over the course of each day.

International support arrived in time to keep the fires at bay before reaching overcrowded urban areas.

The scorching havoc was hard to contain entirely, but fortunately this last weekend saw moderate rainfall drop over the troubled lands, putting an end to the chaos.

Chances are that fires will once again ignite as the draught news haven’t ceased yet.

What May Have Caused This?

Most common hypothesis point toward natural causes like extreme draught coupled with lightnings and powerful winds.

These causes indeed make sense, but most people are unconvinced.

In the case of Greece, many believe that the fires were deliberately spread to make way for newer constructions that would better serve tourists and the pockets of those who would build them.

Some have ventured as far as claiming that a sophisticated in-orbit laser system was tested successfully, same as last year in California.

This wild hypothesis applies for all three countries where wildfires have spawned spontaneous and in more places at once.

While we do have the technological capabilities of starting fires from orbit, I believe that natural causes are to blame for this mishap.

Except for Greece where they could have been man-made to serve greedy interests.

Investigations are underway and we are likely to find out more about the possible cause during the weeks and months ahead.

Since spontaneous wildfires are becoming increasingly common and exponentially deadly, your best chance of surviving would be learning how to tackle them.

For this I will comprise a guide with tricks that can put a fire to rest before touching your front yard.