Vassilis Kikilias spoke about the adversities of this year’s fire fighting season, the battles that have been fought in 4,000 fires across the country – 50% more compared to last year – and about what happened to the fire in Varnavas.
With reference to the criticism leveled at the management of the Varnavas fire, he emphasized that “the minister does not have a hose to put out fires, the fires are put out by the firefighters” and underlined:
“These people, our firefighters, who get 1,000, 1,100 euros – you go to your work in the morning and definitely return home at night – these children, however, are not sure that they will return home at night because they protect us, our lives, our properties and natural beauty. Please be very careful with the mix of your criticism of these people who this year have fought shocking battles in thousands of fires.”
“That day we had three fires in Glyka Nera – with an arsonist who we caught – and at the same time of the start in Varnavas we had the fires in Megara and Eretria if you remember with a red code, with a red alarm, with the same conditions. We managed to deal with them.
The Barnabas fire, while the exact same protocol was followed as the other fires, I tell you, could not be dealt with. No matter what zones we did, the fire passed through. We are now thinking and discussing to change the planting in these areas from pines to slow-burning trees (e.g. kotsupias, carobs) and to make other types of zones because the fire protections we did one after the other – the foresters and Mr. Klouvas from the Army made huge efforts to help with this – the fire was immediately passing them.
We are constantly trying to improve and see what else there is in technology, methods, organization, air-ground correlation, so that we can be better. This is obvious,” said Mr. Kikilias.
He also noted that the fire in Varnavas – which is an urban fabric – broke out with winds of 8-9 Beaufort and within 40 hours it traveled 20 kilometers, while before reaching Patima Chalandriou, it passed through 20 settlements, which the civil protection forces defended one by one.
“I am obliged, like the chief of the Fire Brigade and all the fighters, first of all to save people’s lives, this is what Mati taught us”, said the minister, underlining that the tragedy in Mati changed the worldview for the fires in the country.
As he said, when 104 people lost their lives, the ND – then as the opposition – did not “point the finger” at the political or physical leadership for the development of the fire, which was also characterized by insurmountable conditions (winds 9-10 Beaufort , causing by negligent arson, etc.).
“We said why didn’t you evacuate to save the people and why did you set up this shame later with the meetings, while you knew that people had been burned. And now, therefore, I tell you that the elements of nature in some cases are indeed insurmountable. In ravines and mountains, with the fire passing through settlements such as Varnavas, Nea Makri, Marathona, Grammatiko, Dionysos, Dionysovouni, Stamata and Ekali, the Fire Brigade stopped and left several fire engines in each settlement vehicles – out of a total of 200 that fought this fire – to first of all defend people’s lives, to make safe evacuations, and then to protect property,” he said.
“This year there has been a sensational effort. Ask one-by-one the mayors, deputy mayors, regional governors, Civil Protection officers and people across the country, how many thousands of lives have been saved. It was a very difficult battle for Barnabas.
But do you believe after a whole summer, 4 months that our firefighters, our Civil Protection people, the 9,000 volunteers who have given their souls and hearts to this whole effort that you were talking about, these 40 hours of the Barnabas fire will they cancel all this effort?”, pointed out the minister and stated that it was known from the beginning that due to the prolonged drought and rainlessness that has lasted for 6 months, we will have the most difficult fire fighting season.
For this reason all he had promised was “battle, battle and battle”. And indeed, as he said, for 4 months now all the people of the Civil Protection – the firefighters, the forest commanders, the volunteers, the policemen, the army, the local government of the first and second degree, the forest chiefs and the forest guards, have been acting like superhumans every day efforts and will continue as the fire season ends on October 31.
He also underlined that the changes made this year in the doctrine of the Fire Service and in the way of dealing with forest fires (immediate aerial intervention, patrols of loaded helicopters, use of drones, etc.) brought results and this has been proven by the successful outcomes of hundreds of dangerous fires.
He also made a special reference to the decisive contribution of the 9,000 volunteer firefighters, as well as the 840,000 citizens who cleaned their plots, underlining that “volunteering is the new patriotism”.
Finally, according to iefimerida, referring to the claims of the leader of the official opposition regarding the number of aerial vehicles operating in the Varnavas fire, he emphasized: “Listen, there is Mr. Kasselakis and some of his ilk. They are a minority, I hope, in the country, of people who, before drowning, try to hold on with one hand to the branches of petty politics, toxicity, and shameless lies.
Not only is this not about politics, but in the eyes of the whole society it makes us politicians look untrustworthy. In 2024 no one can hide. Advanced technology systems and artificial intelligence automatically figure out how much air they fly. The information provided by the Fire Department is also in the control towers and was given to Mr. Kasselakis from the very beginning. If the person doesn’t understand or acts like he doesn’t understand, or can’t, or has other kinds of problems… I stop here, because I realize that he is now dealing with other issues.”
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