ER Editor: July, as many observant people are noticing, is turning out to be a weirdly eventful month, especially in terms of governments falling or otherwise getting themselves into trouble. We are of course thinking of Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Estonia and major eruptions in Sri Lanka.

A few days ago we reported on a series of four fires in Rome, the last 2 of which occurred conveniently on adjacent weekends. The media ran the gamut of explanations not very convincingly. See the article we put out on this:

Fourth Fire to Strike Rome In As Many Weeks

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Salisbury Plain in England’s south-west has just had six days of fires. This one is far easier to explain: ‘live firing exercises’ and ‘pre-deployment training’. No matter, a series of many fires it seems started on July 11, and by yesterday, July 15, they were supposed to have been put out, only to restart this morning.

Salisbury Plain contains at minimum a large area for British army training, one of its largest training sites in fact, as well as the iconic Stonehenge and other archaeologically noteworthy areas. It is not an area without significance on a number of levels, therefore. And it may be far more topographically speaking than just a ‘plain’.

The two maps below show the regions around Enford and Urchfont where some of the fires had broken out. Residents of the area complained of experiencing massive volumes of smoke with a stench in non-windy weather conditions:

TWITTER UPDATES: salisbury plain fires

Check out the following reports:

Salisbury Plain fire near Enford is almost extinguished

People warned to close windows and doors on second day of Salisbury Plain blaze

Salisbury Plain fire: Fire service’s statement in full as blaze rages on today

Salisbury Plain fires: MOD apologises for disturbance to locals

MoD apologises for Salisbury Plain wildfires

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See also this from the exclusive Belgravia area of London two days ago, July 14:

Belgravia fire: Blaze near famous Eaton Square home to ex-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and Nigella Lawson

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Image of Stonehenge courtesy of www.visitwiltshire.co