Greece continued on Tuesday, August 13, to fight the fires that are ravaging the northeastern suburbs of Athens and have forced thousands of residents to evacuate their homes. The situation now seems to be improving. “There are no more active fronts, only scattered outbreaks”announced Vassilis Kikilias, the Greek Minister in charge of Civil Protection, on Tuesday. In the morning, the body of a woman was discovered in a burnt-out factory in Patima Halandriou, a municipality that was partly evacuated on Monday.
While for many years, Greece is hit by fires every summer, the authorities are responsible Greeks in these new deadly forest fires are being pointed out by locals. “Enough is enough“, thunders the centrist daily Your Nea. For its part, the liberal newspaper Kathimerini believes that this fire “out of control” would leave “immense destruction and questions still waiting to be answered”.
A feeling shared by some Greeks. “Politicians make statements, but in practice, what are their actions?wonders a resident of Vrilissia, a small town near Athens, interviewed by Release. Franceinfo explains to you pWhy the authorities are criticized.
Limited human resources
Fueled by strong winds, the fire near Athens has devoured at least 10,000 hectares of vegetation since Sunday, according to Greece’s National Observatory. Simeon Roussos, mayor of Chalandri, a town evacuated on Monday, said the lack of firefighters partly explains the scale of these forest fires. “My opinion is that Civil Protection is a State responsibility, which should not be composed punctually of volunteers and five-month contract workers”, he told the daily Your Nea. “You need to have the means and an organized mechanism.”
The same story is heard from Greenpeace Greece. “There are no sufficiently trained units in the whole country”judge Kostis Grimanis, the NGO’s spokesperson in the country, interviewed by franceinfo. LThe Greek newspaper I Avgi claims that there are 4,500 vacant positions in the Greek fire service, and that the average age of personnel is over 45. “The resources for firefighters remain insufficient. On the ground, they are exhausted and overwhelmed”also pleads Nikos Barlagiannis, a Red Cross first-aider, to the newspaper The World.
Faced with the rapid spread of fires and the lack of human resources, Greece has asked the European Union for help on Monday to fight the flames. As part of the system of cooperation between European firefighters, Nearly 300 firefighters, as well as helicopters, fire engines and water tankers, were dispatched to the scene on Tuesday. France announced the dispatch of 180 firefighters and civil security personnel, and 55 trucks.
Unmaintained forests
Climate crisis and drought increase recurrence of fires in Greece, particularly vulnerable to forest fires. Between 2007 and 2023, 10% of the country’s wooded areas went up in smoke, AFP recalls. This year, after a very dry winter, Greece experienced its hottest June and July since statistics began to be collected in 1960. “All the conditions are in place to create megafires”judges Joël Guiot, research director at the CNRS and paleoclimatologist at the European Center for Research and Teaching in Environmental Geosciences. “The vegetation is very dry, the temperatures are very high and the wind is dry”he notes to franceinfo.
The risk of large-scale fires is increased by the lack of maintenance and clearing of forests. According to Joël Guiot, the public authorities “did nothing after the 2022 fire.” In July of that yeararound fifty forest fires had broken out in the country. “In the forest, the trunks of dead trees have still not been removed”deplores a resident of Vrilissia to Release.
However, leaving this vegetation abandoned is very dangerous, because it dries out and becomes “highly flammable”according to Joël Guiot. From a legislative point of view, there is no obligation for individuals to clear or prune trees, whereas this is the case for municipalities. But according to the spokesperson of Greenpeace Greece, the localities don’t always do it, “due to lack of means”.
Or, “sIf the firefighters cannot put them out, these fires only stop when there is no more vegetation to burn.”explains Joël Guiot. Since fires are triggered by human activity, “keep the forests away” areas “human activities” constitutes a solution. “We need to create firewalls”concludes the researcher.
An unambitious prevention plan
Some say that the lack of preparedness by governments goes beyond the lack of clearing. In 2022, the World Wildlife Fund stated: “The government [grec] invests only 16% in prevention, compared to 84% in repression.” “The authorities are waiting for the forests to burn before taking action, adds Kostis Grimanis. This is irresponsible.”
“With global warming, fires will become more intense, so it is necessary to start a prevention campaign.”
Kostis Grimanis, spokesperson for Greenpeace Greeceto franceinfo
An opinion shared by Alexis Charitsis, president of the Greek parliamentary group of the New Left, according to whom the fires are linked to the “conscious political choice of the government of doing nothing to prevent and protect the areas“particularly citing the few resources allocated to civil protection, reports the daily Your NeaFaced with the lack of preparation of the authorities, the inhabitants are forced to take precautions. “Every summer we are on the alert, we have a small suitcase ready in case we have to be evacuated”deplores in The World a young Greek from Nea Makri, a small seaside town east of Athens.
The fire that broke out on Sunday has brought back memories of the fire disaster in Mati, a coastal area near Marathon, where 104 people died in July 2018, in a tragedy blamed on delays and evacuation errors. Furthermore, Joël Guiot points out that these fires can cause other disasters. “Burned land creates a mass of compacted earth, over which water will run off, which risks creating major floods.”he warns. The country has already faced such a phenomenon in September 2023.