Forest Fires & Swimming Pools

[BrianKelly]

I live in a Rural area, overlooking the Mountains and my House has a 10m x 5m Swimming pool, which is not immediately surrounded by any trees or buildings. My neighbour recons that I should plant a few trees closeby to stop and helicopters coming and scooping water out of my pool, thereby doing damage to the rest of the garden with the down-draught. Could they, and would they really do this or is he pulling my leg ?

[Gulliver]

Your friend is right. A couple of years ago there was a fire on the mountain behind me and my neighbour had a about 6 or 7 scoops of water taken from his pool by the Helicopters. Losing the water wasn't really a problem, but the damage to the garden and the crap blow through the open patio doors and into his house caused a fair bit of damage. He couldn't do anything about it, obviously. Planting the trees might help, but it's just one of those things you have to learn to live with !

[AJC]

When you consider that as many as 4 Fires were burning in different parts of Spain last weekend (some as big as 500 Hectares, like the one in Murcia that took a whole week to put out !) you can appreciate that there is a feeling of urgency and everybody doing all they can to get the fire our as quickly as possible and before it can do any more damage or get close to properties.

[BrianKelly]

When you consider that as many as 4 Fires were burning in different parts of Spain last weekend (some as big as 500 Hectares, like the one in Murcia that took a whole week to put out !) you can appreciate that there is a feeling of urgency and everybody doing all they can to get the fire our as quickly as possible and before it can do any more damage or get close to properties.

I understand that completely. I was just wondering if there was any form of compensation anyone can claim for any resulting damage like this ?

[MrGrumpy]

I understand that completely. I was just wondering if there was any form of compensation anyone can claim for any resulting damage like this ?

I have never heard of anyone either making a claim or being successful in getting any compensation in cases like this. I would imagine you wouldn't have a hope in hell !