“Use your wrist! Now, change the stream!” A concentrated Katerina Kaglia holds a hearth hose, focusing its stream of water on a tree trunk. Stavros Salayiannis, operations supervisor of the Vyronas Volunteer Fireplace Division, stands by her facet giving directions. Every part has to occur shortly, he tells her, there isn’t a time for missteps.
For now, the 2 are solely practising the way to take care of various typical real-world eventualities. However it’s already unseasonably sizzling for June and temperatures have been going up all throughout Europe. In Greece, individuals have not forgotten the devastating wildfires that destroyed 75,000 hectares (185,320 acres) of forest in 2021, or the 2018 fires alongside the Attica coast that killed 102 in Mati.
In 2021, wildfires raged throughout massive elements of Greece
Fortunately, nobody died in the course of the wildfires final summer time. However, the forests on the north facet of the island of Euboea had been nearly completely destroyed, and within the Peloponnese area, a hoop of fires raged round historical Olympia. Individuals in Varympompi and Afidnes, simply outdoors Athens, had been pressured to flee their houses and in the end misplaced every part.
In Vyronas, the place charred stumps glisten within the solar, the scars of final 12 months’s fires are in every single place. Temperatures right here climb above 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) earlier than noon. Only a few kilometers away lies the ocean of white homes that make up the metropolis of Athens. By no means have the flames come so near town as they did in 2021.
Serving within the volunteer hearth division
Kaglia says the devastating fires of 2021 led her to affix the Vyronas Volunteer Fireplace Division. “I could not simply sit and watch as Greece burned. I needed to assist,” the 24-year-old tells DW.
A pc scientist by occupation, she does not obtain pay for her work on the hearth division. She says the hours she spends with colleagues patrolling the woods and in watchtowers looking out for fires within the forests of Vyronas are an expression of her deep connection to her dwelling.
Kaglia says a lot of her compatriots nonetheless do not perceive the gravity of the state of affairs. “I get livid when individuals throw cigarettes or rubbish into the woods. Little acts of carelessness can spark devastating fires,” she says.
Katerina Kaglia says she ‘could not sit and watch as Greece burned’
Certainly, 90% of all wildfires in Greece are began by human error. Ever-longer intervals of drought, mixed with report temperatures, successfully make forests right here defenseless towards the flames.
And the fires have already begun this 12 months. In early June, houses close to the southern Athens suburb of Glyfada needed to be evacuated. And on Euboea, Greece’s second-largest island, flames have already licked their means to the outskirts of the village of Gaia.
‘We’re making big errors’
Stavros Salayiannis steers his purple hearth division pickup truck by the forests of Vyronas. He has been with the volunteer hearth division for greater than 30 years, and now serves as president of the Affiliation of Greek Volunteer Forest Safety Organizations. The forest flooring is roofed in dry brush, leaves and downed timber.
An enormous tree trunk blocks the hearth path: “That is from final week’s storm. It ought to have been taken care of some time in the past,” he says.
“We have not realized from previous errors,” he provides. “Quite the opposite, we’re making big errors. This 12 months, for the primary time, the Atmosphere Ministry is working along with the ministry for civil safety. There’s some huge cash and the hearth trails are nonetheless blocked to firefighters. That is a gigantic drawback in case you’re preventing wildfires.”
Moreover, he says, it illustrates how little inventory is definitely put into wildfire prevention.
Volunteer firefighter Stavros Salayiannis is working to guard towards the specter of hearth in Vyronas
Too little cash for prevention
Salayiannis is astonished that final 12 months’s huge lack of acreage and clear menace to Athens have not led to a change in mindset. “We do not perceive the need of beginning annual prevention measures lengthy earlier than Could 1. In Greece, we at all times wait till the final second,” he says.
That late begin means it is solely a matter of days earlier than the wildfire menace reaches Stage 4, which in flip implies that all hearth prevention work within the forests should stop. “That places us even additional behind. It is merely a problem of poor planning. I simply hope we can’t must pay too excessive a value for it,” he says.
After the fiery summer time of 2021, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised enhancements. He made new appointments to key authorities posts and likewise named a minister for local weather disaster and civil safety. For Elias Tziritis, hearth prevention coordinator on the World Wildlife Fund in Greece, such appointments are nothing greater than lip service.
A latest report printed by the environmental group gave poor marks to the Greek authorities: 83.5% of state funds for hearth safety between 2016 and 2020 went to preventing wildfires, and solely 16.5% went to stopping them. The United Nations, nevertheless, recommends investing 45% in hearth prevention, 35% in firefighting and 20% in reforestation.
The traces of final 12 months’s wildfires are clearly seen in Vyronas
Requires clarification and transparency
Tziritis can be important of the best way the finances is dealt with. “We’ve got main issues with transparency. It isn’t simply concerning the sum of money, however reasonably, about strengthening management mechanisms in order that we are able to perceive what it is getting used for.” Wants, he says, fluctuate tremendously from neighborhood to neighborhood.
At one location, outdated energy traces is likely to be an issue. At one other, communal leaders would possibly want to coach locals concerning the risks of uncontrollable fires sparked, for example, by burning dry leaves or fumigating beehives.
“An motion plan has to deal with the sources of fires. Why do fires escape in other places? If I do not know, what sort of options can I provide?” he asks.
Elias Tziritis is a hearth prevention professional on the environmental group WWF Greece
Authorities hikes firefighting finances
Inadequate knowledge, flagging budgets and understaffing on the Forestry Division, lack of information switch: Tziritis’ record of criticisms is lengthy. He has known as for a scientific rethink and improved cooperation between communities, organizations and the federal government.
Greece has tremendously elevated its firefighting finances for 2022, and upped the variety of out there firefighting plane from 74 to 86. Moreover, as a precaution, 250 firefighters from six EU nations, together with Germany, have been known as up as a part of the European Civil Safety Mechanism.
Giorgos Amyras, the deputy minister for environmental safety points, thinks his nation is on the appropriate path, regardless of ongoing difficulties. “For many years, the federal government focused on preventing fires, not stopping them,” he stated. “This 12 months, Greece has, for the primary time in its historical past, taken essential preventative steps.”
With its Antinero program, the Greek authorities has now invested €72 million ($76 million) in wildfire prevention — that covers 77,000 hectares (190,271 acres) of forest, 12,000 kilometers (7,456 miles) of fireside trails and 1,600 kilometers of firebreaks.
Nonetheless, Amyras and the Greek authorities face a frightening job: particularly, defining the general path of environmental coverage and getting residents concerned.
“We’ve got to guard the surroundings for coming generations,” stated Amyras. And he’s satisfied the Greek authorities is taking the appropriate steps to just do that.
This text was translated from German by Jon Shelton