smoke

when we were down at the lake this afternoon we suddenly spotted a column of smoke. It got worse. There were lots of sirens. While we ate our dinner down there, enjoying the 100% bikini heat and the breeze off the water, 200 firemen were just down the road dealing with this. It was very interesting watching the helicopter getting water from the lake and chucking it down on the buildings.
As we drove home, the smoke was coming the same way as us and we had the taste of metal and rubber in our mouths. Just as we were coming off the motorway, the smoke and smell got massively stronger and we realised that there was a second enormous fire - which had broken out at more or less the same time.
The local firemen have done an amazing amount of work today - it's been so hot anyway and to fight so many enormous fires on a Sunday evening when most of us are busy enjoy barbecues and swimming - well, hats off to them, I hope someone buys them a beer, they've certainly earnt it!
This is the smoke from the fire in Arbon that we can see from our road. It does stink a bit too.....