Raging Wildfires stoke anger at Greek government
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Raging Wildfires stoke anger at Greek government*
* Helena Smith in Athens
* The Guardian,
* Thursday June 26, 2008
Forest fires raged on the outskirts of Athens yesterday, causing power
cuts across the capital and fears that this year could see a repeat of
the devastating blazes that killed scores of Greeks last summer.
As water-dumping planes tried to extinguish the inferno,
environmentalists said that the country still remained ill-prepared to
deal with fires. "It is clear that the state machinery is not yet up to
the task of handling such fires," said Achilleus Plitharas at the Greek
branch of WWF.
Environmentalists say the increasing number of forest fires, exacerbated
by rising Mediterranean temperatures and high winds, can be tamed only
by the creation of a special unit within the fire brigade, improved
training for volunteers and more funds for fire prevention. Government
officials admit that few of these measures have been taken, with many
privately conceding that they have been hindered by the lack of an
environment ministry.
"It is obvious that most of these measures won't be enforced this
summer," said a conservative MP, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who heads the
parliament's environment committee.
Fanned by high winds and soaring temperatures, yesterday's flames
destroyed vast tracts of Mount Hymettus, around the Glyka Nera area east
of Athens, sending clouds of acrid smoke into the skies and damaging
power lines.
MPs from the governing conservative party were greeted with jeers and
raised fists when they rushed to the scene. "We've been appealing for
days for authorities to come and clear woodland of combustible litter
and nothing has happened," a resident, Christos Chronopoulos, told Alpha TV.
Many residents said it had taken hours for the rescue services to arrive.
Greece endured the worst fires on record last year with 65 people,
mostly in the southern Peloponnese, dying and swaths of forest and
farmland and many villages burnt down.