The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias, referring to the preparation for this year’s fire fighting season, said: “We will have fires in the summer. We will try to limit the effects”, while he emphasized that the penalties for those who do not comply with the measures will be heavy.
Prevention
Speaking to ERT, Mr. Kikilias said regarding what the government’s moves are in terms of prevention: “We signed a memorandum with DEDDIE and ADMIE.
It was taboo to enter the forests. We love the forests, we want to protect them, but they have 3-4 meters of fuel each, they are abandoned in Greece.
The fact that DEDDIE and ADMIE come in and make fire zones, as was finally allowed by law, by my law, following 50 years in the post-colonial period, is very important for them to maintain their networks and for us to put the our fire extinguishers and possibly stopping a fire.
Second, in collaboration with Mr. Dendias, 100 meters around our camps throughout Greece will be shaved and a fire zone.
You understand that there are pallets of munitions and ammunition in almost every camp in Greece. This is a very big challenge and a very big risk.
Also, Mr. Skylakakis with Mr. Goudoufa, General Director of Forests at the Ministry of Energy and Environment ANTINERO III, we are talking regarding 140 kilometers of fire zones, roads, clearings, clearances, etc.
I request the same, with the money they have received, from the municipalities for peri-urban and forest areas. Also change of fines and penalties.
Mr. Floridis brought, following my suggestion to the Criminal Code that was passed a few months ago, the change from a misdemeanor to a felony of negligently causing a fire. In other words, those who are habitual arsonists through negligence and smoke their beehives, or in 40 degrees they have a barbecue in the woods and as a result a human life is lost, you cause an ecological disaster, it’s a felony, he has 10 years in prison and a 200,000 euro fine”.
The minister underlined that “for 40 years now no one has touched our forests, our forests have two and three meters of fuel, this was burned in Pieria, the forest was not disturbed. The fire was creeping in the Pieria mountains, fuel was burning.”
The business part
“In everything to do with the response, I start with the aerial means, which of course with our national fleet, to thank Gaia and our engineers because they fly during the day during the fire season and are maintained at night and are a this is a very big effort.
Along with this air fleet we have already leased because the NSPA tender of this NATO mechanism for the lease of aerial assets has been completed, 49 aerials, they are medium and heavy duty helicopters.
They are all that we need in order to be able to add to our national fleet, they are more than we have ever had.
The same ones we had last year, are they enough? No. 200-300 outbreaks are raging throughout Greece. It’s never enough. We may want a thousand, two thousand and 50,000 firefighters. This can be done; No.
The needs of a state are at all levels and teachers and professors and drivers and paramedics and ambulance drivers etc. But we in the part that has to, we did everything that was required and we also have 15,000 permanent firefighters and 2,500 seasonal ones. More than ever and 700 forest rangers we hired and built another 10 bases of airborne forest rangers that are inside the fire and intervene directly”, said Mr. Kikilias.
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