As temperatures rise in Greece, so does fear of Extreme Wildfires
Pastor Dale Morgan
As temperatures rise in Greece, so does fear of Extreme Wildfires*
ATHENS, June 2 (AFP) Jun 02, 2008
Nearly a year after a wave of wildfires killed 77 people around the
country, Greek authorities are viewing the season's rising temperatures
with unease, knowing that fire outbreaks are rarely far behind. "If
weather conditions are the same, we risk living through a remake of what
happened last summer," says fire department spokesman Yiannis Kapakis.
Coming after a series of heatwaves, the deadly wave of wildfires last
July and August devastated around 270,000 hectares (667,000 acres) of
forest and farmland, mainly in the fertile Peloponnese peninsula south
of Athens.
The conservative government, which won re-election weeks after the
disaster, subsequently promised to overhaul Greece's emergency response
system.
An additional 1,260 firemen were hired but they will only begin training
in June and the department actually needs 4,000 new recruits, Kapakis notes.
The authorities also took steps to upgrade a reserve of 5,500 seasonal
firemen who routinely back up the fire department's standing force of
8,500 men and women.
The seasonal force will henceforth carry protective gear which they
sorely lacked until now, and their contracts were extended from five
months to eight.
But most importantly, Kapakis notes, emphasis was placed on optimising
the entire fire-fighting coordination system after a series of disasters
and close-calls last summer.
In August 2007, many of the victims died trying to flee villages
encircled by flames, which in one case even came close to burning
through the major archaeological site of Olympia, birthplace of the
ancient Olympic Games.
Weather conditions did not help, as Greece's water-bombing aircraft that
are usually first in the line of response were frequently grounded
because of strong winds, a dominant feature here in August.
And when the aircraft did take off, pressure from media or local
politicians often dictated their destination, saving certain areas but
dooming others.
This time round, the authorities have drawn up detailed evacuation plans
and special provisions for archaeological sites, the fire service
spokesman said.
But one crucial detail -- fire prevention -- has been overlooked, argues
Nikos Bokaris, chairman of the Greek union of forest engineers.
"Greek forests are littered with flammable garbage," he notes.
"The clearing of brush has yet to begin, firebreaks have yet to be
created, and temperatures already hit 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees
Fahrenheit) at the end of May," Bokaris says.
Many mayors around the country have made similar calls, but the
government says that local authorities often fail to use state-allocated
funds properly to protect their own areas of responsibility.
The trash-infested state of many forests in Greece has at its root a
lack of environmental awareness which successive governments have done
little to remedy, argues Costas Kalabokidis, a natural disaster researcher.
Even after last summer's catastrophe shocked the nation and sparked a
flurry of replanting initiatives, Greek society remains "pyromaniac" at
heart and many here would turn a blind eye to a burning forest if they
could build a summer home on the embers, Kalabokidis said.
"And with the drought that has plagued this area in recent years, we are
destined to relive the same tragedy," he adds.