ATHENS: When firefighters arrived at a blaze in a pine forest on the Greek island of Rhodes final July, flames had been already leaping above the bushes into the evening sky. The volunteers wanted to behave quick, however dense vegetation on the forest flooring blocked entry.
With crews unable to get shut, the fireplace unfold and inside days had engulfed the Mediterranean island, forcing 19,000 individuals to flee – one of many greatest catastrophe evacuations in Greece’s historical past.
“Have you ever ever tried strolling by a forest that has not been cleared for greater than 10 years? It is so troublesome,” mentioned firefighter Nikos Karpathakis, who was on the scene.
As one other summer time approaches, and as local weather change makes wildfires ever extra lethal throughout southern Europe, Greece has developed a brand new doctrine to comprise the injury, together with deploying an additional hearth truck to every new blaze, dashing up air help and clearing forests.
However 5 firefighters and three specialists mentioned the initiative would not handle shortfalls in planning and prevention and extra devastation awaits.
“We’re clinging to a doctrine which insists on hearth suppression as a substitute of adopting an built-in hearth administration technique,” mentioned Theodore Giannaros, a fireplace meteorologist on the Nationwide Observatory of Athens.
Warmth waves triggered wildfires throughout swathes of Portugal, France, Spain and Italy final yr and brought about dozens of deaths.
The scenario is particularly dire in Greece, which has simply recorded its warmest winter on document, creating ideally suited circumstances for fires that threaten crops, properties and the booming tourism business.
Final August, a fireplace within the northern Evros area destroyed an space bigger than New York Metropolis and killed a minimum of 20 individuals – the deadliest European blaze of 2023. Fires this yr have begun sooner than anticipated, together with one in March in a mountainous space usually blanketed by snow.
“It will likely be a really robust wildfire season. Local weather change is right here,” Vassilis Kikilias, Minister for Local weather Disaster and Civil Safety, advised Reuters.
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Greece has made strides to fight fires, together with constructing firebreaks round energy poles in forested areas and stepping up coaching.
Some 700 further forest rangers had been employed this yr. Crews have cleared 12,000 hectares of forest since 2022 and one other 7,000 hectares will likely be accomplished by the top of Could, the surroundings ministry mentioned.
